Editorial: a sign of grace amid refugee crisis in Europe

It is said that the British Government has now decided to allow a limited number of refugees from the Sudetenland of Czecho-Slovakia to enter Britain “provided that suitable arrangements and accommodation can be made for them by the competent authorities.” Who are the competent authorities is not yet known, but there can be no official body or private individual in the country unwilling to respond to the Government’s gesture.

The refugees will be mainly German Jews and Socialists who formerly lived in the Sudetenland or who had settled there after escaping from Germany and Austria. There cannot be many, because not all who would escape were able to do so, and because of those who got away in time many were sent back again by the Czech authorities. (Unfortunately there is no doubt of this, in spite of official doubts and denials.) Many of these must now be in prison or concentration camps; there will surely be room for the more fortunate in Britain.

It is to be hoped that those German refugees from Austria and the Third Reich who had found refuge in Prague, among them many distinguished men of letters, will be included in this bounty; their number cannot be much more than a hundred, and their future must now be uncertain.

This particular problem, however, is only part of a greater one: we have still to find homes for many thousands of political refugees in Europe. This cannot be solved by Britain alone, even if the Government were willing. The most hopeful approach is through co-operation between the British and American Governments and the British Dominions, who at last are beginning to realise the responsibilities of those countries with open spaces and a declining birth-rate.