THE TRAGEDY OF THE STRUMA SIR,—In this age of callousness
we cannot expect everybody to feel pity for the unfortunate Jewish victims of the Struma ' tragedy,
but one who attempts to justify the denial of pity should have pre- viously made sure of the facts. Miss Boyd says that the Jewish refugees "must have known before they embarked on their voyage that what they were attempting was against the law." Apart from the question of humanity, what is the law?
(t) The rigorous policy in regard to the immigration of Jews into Palestine is at present governed by the White Paper of 1939. That document was rejected by the Mandate Commission, and, owing to the outbreak of war, was not even considered by the Council of the League. It is therefore entirely devoid of any legal validity. In the House of Commons debate on May 22nd-23rd, 1939, it was denounced by all the leading members of the present Government. Mr. Churchill, for instance, stigmatised it as "an act of repudiation," 'a plain breach of a solemn obligation," and "another Munich."
'.2) Even according to the White Paper, the Palestine Government is allowed to admit 25,000 Jewish refugees within five years from
1939, apart from io,000 Jewish immigrants a year for the same Period. The victims of the ' Struma ' tragedy could and should, therefore, have been admitted as part of the refugee quota, which is far from having been completed.
13) Great Britain is fighting for the overthrow of Nazism, one of the distinctive and destructive features of which is racial discrimina- tion. The British Government humanely admits all sorts of non- Jewish refugees, Poles, Greeks, Yugoslays and others to Palestine, irrespective of number, but unjustly discriminates against Jews in the very land in which it is pledged to facilitate the establishment of the Jewish National Home.—Yours faithfully, ISRAEL COHEN. 29 Paulson Road, N.W. 2.
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