THE STRUMA ' TRAGEDY
SIR,—Miss Boyd, in a letter published in your issue of March 27th, says in reference to the Struma ' passengers, that the Government had refused to allow the would-be immigrants into Palestine to land in that country illegally. These persons must have known before they embarked on their voyage that what they were attempting was against the law.
As well might I be told that if a cat-burglar, endeavouring to climb into my house by way of an upper window, falls and breaks his leg, I am responsible for this accident because I did not open my door to facilitate his illegal entry into my premises.
Miss Boyd's statement is as deficient in accuracy as it is in humanity. The Struma ' arrived at Istanbul on December 13th, and the Jewish Agency for Palestine applied to the Palestine Administration for the legal admission of these refugees, which could have been easily accorded within the existing regulations, certificates for some 3,000 Jewish immigrants being available. But the Palestine Administration refused, and after that the only alternatives for these men, women and children were death in the Black Sea or at the hands of their tormentors—and the minor evil has befallen them, by accident or by choice. Does Miss Boyd contend that there was something morally reprehensible in the attempt of these people to escape from a regime under which they were robbed of all their possessions, deprived of any possibility of' making a living, driven into the wintry Steppes of the Ukrainian "scorched earth" beyond the Dniester, tortured and murdered? The idea uppermost in their minds was only to get away—if refugees from Hong Kong set out for Australia or America, in spite of the strict immigration laws in force in those countries, hoping to obtain permission en route, or " indemnity " on arrival, would Miss Boyd talk of them in the same delightful style and compare them to cat-burglars? From the Falcon Hotel, Settle, Yorkshire, she launches this light-heartedly abusive comparison against 768 corpses of victims of Nazi persecution.
Miss Boyd criticises you, Sir, for publishing Dr. Maclean's letter—may I thank you for publishing her own? It is right that people should be given an opportunity publicly to display their thoughts, feelings and good
taste.—I am, Sir, yours, &c., L. B. NAM 1510. The Athenaeum, London, S.W. 1.
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