Refugees, 1960
THE United Kingdom Committee has raised four million pounds for World Refugee Year —twice the amount originally aimed at—and no thanks to the British Government, which con- tributed a measly £200,000. But there are still 110,000 refugees left in Europe alone, most of whom have been in camps for the past fifteen years, with little hope of anything better, and their needs will not end with the end of World Refugee Year, which is now very close. So there is every reason to help them further by spending half-a-crown on Refugees 1960, 'a report in words and drawings,' by Kaye Webb and Ronald Searle, published this week by Penguin Books, who are forgoing their profit on the venture, as are the paper suppliers, printers, bookbinders and booksellers, so that all proceeds, after the bare From Refugee.s. /960 cost of production, can go to the United Kingdont Committee. Author and artist visited a number of winter, and they have been moved by what tlhaesYt refugee camps in Austria, Italy and Greece saw and heard to do their best work : the tot is instinct with pity and irony, and in the dri \v- ;ings of refugees it is the eyes that haunt the .reader, as they must have haunted the artist. Al' We can do individually is to contribute our h; crowns; it would be easy, though. especially 1r1 'these prosperous days of full employment. for 'British and Commonwealth governments 10 JO more than that and open their doors a little AO! grudgingly. Kaye Webb writes : 'New Zealand wants to know if' we 1104 corns.' one woman told me. and suddenly if! 111e midst of our laughter I realised she was cr'ying, Other inquiries on the medical questionnaire for many large countries of possible emigration in" elude requests for information on 'the spec111c gravity of urine,' and whether the applicant has ever 'suffered from chilblains:.
General information requested is almost daunting: addresses during the last fifteen ■e, addresses and names of last four emploi details of membership of all organisations. ironically two copies of a good conduct cc ficate from the police in the last countr‘ habitation.
No one over forty-five is accepted in or Britain, no one suffering from lung trouble moral turpitude goes to the United States. one less than 100 per cent. sound mentally physically to Canada, New Zealand. Australia. These were the harsh selective ro normally imposed on an applicant for imnUg
tion. . Vet Sweden. as far back as 19 offered to take 2,000 completely unfit hull: beings, and pointed the way in which I problem could be solved.
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