Settlement of Refugees
SIR,—In his article, Specialist Refugees, in the Spectator of September 30th, Mr. Edwards attributes a great deal of credit to I.R.O. which belongs elsewhere. It is only since July, 1947, that I.R.O. has been responsible for "the settlement of displaced persons and non-German refugees." After the capitulation of Germany, their care and maintenance, repatria- tion and resettlement were undertaken by the Military Government. Some time later U.N.R.R.A. and the toluntary societies sent teams to help the P.W. and D.P. Division of the Control Commission in the British zone. In July, 1947, I.R.O. took over from U.N.R.R.A., but by this time "the refugee problem" had been reduced from two and a half millions to under half a million. Since then the P.W. and D.P. Division has continued to be responsible for administering and maintaining the camps and settlements, the distribution of food and clothing, the provision of medical and works services, and has carried out the movement of all repatriates and emi- grants. All this represents a very large contribution towards the solution of the D.P. and refugee problem.
I.R.O. was certainly faced with the difficult task of resettling the hard core, and it is to their credit that they called a conference in Switzerland in April, 1948, to consider the special difficulties of specialist D.Ps and refugees. I was impressed at that conference by the attitude of the leaders of I.R.O. and their determination to help these people whose qualifications were proving to be a veritable handicap, and I believe con- siderable success has followed the steps taken, so that many have been provided for. At the same time it must be realised that I.R.O. area teams in the British zone are few, and a visit by an I.R.O. official to each camp is by no means a daily occurrence, so that it is still the officials of P.W. and D.P. Divisions who are daily in personal contact with those in the camps and have a closer understanding of their needs ; so that even now much of I.R.O.'s success depends on C.C.G.—Yours faithfully,
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