Stn,--I should like to add a word in support of
the Rev. Henry Carter's plea in The Spectator of September 17th for international responsibility for the whole refugee problem. When I was recently in Austria, I learnt of the great and growing burden of the hundreds of thousands of refugees, Volksdeutsche from Eastern Europe, thrown on the Austrians' strained economy. They get no help for their maintenance from the International Refugee Organisation. In order to meet the demands of the Soviet Union, the Western Powers accepted the restriction of the definition of refugees and Displaced Persons in the constitution of the I.R.O., only to be let down in the end by Russia and the Slav States which have refused to participate in that agency of the United Nations. I saw in Austria, also, on the banks of one of the beautiful lakes of the Salzkammergut, a home conducted by the World Council of Churches for the old people, men and women, from the D.P. camps, who cannot emigrate. That kind of action needs to be multiplied a hundredfold. Henry Carter's appeal for a large and comprehensive humanity in dealing with the problem is not only charitable but wise. It has been truly said that the way in which Europe tackles the problems of its refugees is a
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