MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
PRESIDENT TRUMAN, on July 7th, addressed to Congress a
special message in which he asked them to do something on behalf of Displaced Persons. He suggested that special legislation should be introduced such as would enable the existing immigration laws to be relaxed in favour of this tragic category of human wastage. He estimated that there were to-day one million of such people in Europe, who "by reason of political opinion and fear of persecution are still unwilling to • return to the areas where they once had homes." The figure of one million does not, of course, represent the total number of those who, for one reason or another, are existing as stateless and homeless exiles in foreign lands. It does not include ex-enemy nationals, persons accused of having collaborated with the enemy, Germans expelled from the areas now occupied by Poland or Russia, and those Volksdeutsche, or people of assumed German or Austrian origin, who are being driven out of the Slav areas. It is almost impossible, even to-day, to estimate the total number of those who, in one country or another, and often in hiding, are managing to keep alive without ration cards or identity cards or any recognised status. The figure of three million is certainly an underestimate. It would be a mistake to suppose that the Allied Governments have done nothing since the Armistice to cope with this vast human problem. Long before D Day it was realised that we should find in enemy territory many millions of hungry people who had been torn from their homes as refugees, as forced labour, or as prisoners of war. The measures taken by S.H.A.E.F. and U.N.R.R.A. reflect much credit on these organisations and their over-worked staff. The task of repatriation was at once put in hand; long streams of lorries poured east and west bringing back to their homes the millions whom the Nazis had displaced : the skies hummed with Dakotas loaded with these wretched people and their pathetic belongings. Within an incredibly short time, as many as seven and a half million people had been returned to their homes. That was a fine achievement. But what of those who refuse to be repatriated?
* * There are some 26,00o from Estonia, some 9o,000 from Latvia, some 6o,000 from Lithuania, some 319,000 from Poland, some to,000 from Russia, some 20,000 from Yugoslavia, and some to,000 from Rumania. These figures are merely approximate and do not include the many thousand people who have just got lost. The authorities established a most efficient system for identification and mmmunication; but in spite of this there are many people, :specially children, who cannot remember where they came from and who wave lost all touch with their families and friends. The British Government, whose attitude towards these people has been both efficient and humane, have of late been importing some of these displaced persons to this country; they are collected in reception camps and gradually given employment and accommoda- tion; inevitably it is not always possible to keep families together and some unhappiness must result. But at least they are being given the chance of earning their own living, of acquiring self- respect, and of being absorbed as the years pass into the community of which they have in such tragic circumstances become members. The amazing thing is that these people have through all these years been able to maintain their courage and their desire to live : they will in the end prove a valuable addition to our working population. And if, as is rumoured, the United States intends to receive as many as 400,000, then the black despair in which they have for all these years been shrouded will be replaced by hope. .
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It is inevitable that we in this country should wince away from the contemplation of this gigantic disaster. We are preoccupied by our own present difficulties and troubles; we gaze upon the immediate and distant future with weary anxiousness; we do not desire to be told about other human problems which we should
wish to regard as remote. Moreover the glass of human sympathy is but a shallow receptacle; it can contain a certain amount of pity, but if too much is poured into it there comes an overflow. The imagination is atrophied by a succession of horrors; and events which before 1938 would have driven us into paroxysms of protest and pity now evoke no more than a passing sigh. Tragedies which occur upon our very door-step appear as remote to us as some Chinese cataclysm seemed to the Victorians. It is only human that we should seek to prevent these terrible misfortunes from intruding on our consciousness; that we should dismiss them as something which is being seen to either by our own Government or by the International Refugee Organisation; and that in some manner we should evade the sense of responsibility, with its accompanying sense of guilt, by persuading ourselves that those recalcitrant refugees who refuse to return home must have acted disloyally to their own countries and must therefore be unworthy of the sympathy which; in our condition of nervous exhaustion, we are unwilling to give. This does not seem to me a very Christian attitude.
* * * * As an example of the grave political and moral problems which the situation has created, I should mention specifically the case of the Yugoslav D.P.s. In the British zone in Germany there are some 15,000 Yugoslav displaced persons, and in the British zone in Austria there are some 13,000 more. In the camps in Italy there are still some 12,000 Yugoslays, whereas an unknown figure of other Yugoslav refugees, estimated in some quarters as amounting to 6o,000, are scattered throughout Italy, unregistered, unidentified, and hiding in the woods and farms. In April last the Yugoslav Government proclaimed an " amnesty " for all, except " war crimi- nals " and " collaborators," who were willing to return to their country. This offer met with but a feeble response. The problem is rendered urgent by the fact that before long the Peace Treaty with Italy will enter into force. Under Article 45 of that treaty, Italy undertook to hand over to Yugoslavia any " war-criminals," or even any witnesses required at the trials of war-criminals, which the Yugoslav Government might demand. Once the treaty has been ratified, the Italian Government will find themselves in a very difficult position. On the one hand there are some 25,000 Italian refugees and prisoners of war still in Yugoslav hands. On the other hantl, the Italian Government will be most unwilling to furnish to Yugoslavia a pretext for the reproach that they are not carrying out the stipulations of the Peace Treaty. Yet the possibility cannot be ignored that the Yugoslav Government will regard, and claim, as " war criminals " those of their nationals who, owing to their refusal to return to Yugoslavia, have incurred the suspicion of being hostile to the present regime. Such people, if they returned, would not be given what are known as " political clearance cards" and, even if they avoided actual persecution, their lives would be brutish and short. Moreover, the accounts which these Yugoslays in Italy receive from those of their compatriots who have returned to Yugoslavia and have since escaped, are discouraging accounts. It is not in the least surprising that many should refuse to return to a homeland in which they would be exposed to grave personal danger.
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It may be that the Truman message will provide a proportion of these people with the chance of starting a new life in the United States. It may be that the French and the Belgians will agree to receive some of them. But we also should contribute even more than we have contributed already. The North German Timber Control could surely use some Yugoslays, who are well suited for this sort of work; and even more might be absorbed in this country under the scheme known as " Operation Westward Ho." Such action would relieve the Italian Government of a most embarrassing responsibility
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