WHERE TO SETTLE THE JEWS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATCR] SIR,—In connexion with your most interesting article " What Next in the Ukraine ? " allow me to trespass on your valuable space. Mr. H. P. Vowles tells us that the Ukrainians " like r: her Soviet citizens take great pride in the progress made by the U.S.S.R. as a whole," and adds that " the people are also inspired by a powerful ideal, reinforced by faith in the Soviet Union, in themselves and in their future." And speaking of the Ukrainians in the Soviet Union, he emphatically declares that " at the present time the people are far more prosperous and far better educated than ever before." From this statement we are entitled to conclude that the treatment of non-Russian populations in the U.S.S.R. is ideal and hardly could be better. If so, may I point out a solution to the much-discussed problem of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution which, according to the statement of the repre- sentatives of important and responsible bodies of this and other countries, is " unheard of " and " unprecedented " in the history of humanity ?
In the Soviet Union there is an independent Jewish Soviet Republic in Birobirdjan. A country larger than France and Germany, with an excellent climate, enormous natural wealth and extremely sparsely populated. For the last few years the world-renowned Joint Dis. Committee has collected billions of dollars for the settlement of Jewry in their independent Jewish Republic of Birobirdjan (passing the collected moneys to the Soviet Government). Surely Mr. Litvinoff—a Jew, occupying a prominent position with the Soviet Government— would considerably contribute to the favourable solution of the Jewish refugee problem by facilitating the settlement of victims of Nazism en masse in Birobirdjan. Surely Germany is closer to Soviet Russia than " Government " Spain, from whence thousands of children were evacuated to Soviet Russia with the magnanimous assistance of the Duchess of Atholl and the leader of the Opposition. Being a rank-and-file onlooker of events, I wonder why such a project has never been reported in the Press of this or other countries. And if this project is not up to the scratch, may we ask why?—Yours
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