REFUGEES IN BRITAIN
By JANET LEEPER
AREPORT published by the Central Office for Refugees at Bloomsbury House contains much useful information as to the present position of German and Austrian refugees in this country. Nearly five thousand are members of the Pioneer Corps, the A.T.S. and other British military units. There are more than a thousand agricultural and forestry workers, and many thousands at work in the war factories, including the production of munitions ; indeed, ninety-five•per cent, of employable refugees are now actively engaged in assisting the national effort. While it is estimated that between 1933 and 1939 Some 400,000 Germans and Austrians left the Reich as a result of Nazi oppression, •most of those who came here were on their way to other countries. Of the 56,000 adult Austrian and German refugees remaining in Great Britain, eighty per cent, might be described as stranded owing to the war and shortage of shipping space, perhaps ten per cent. are political refugees, while sixty per cent. are over fifty years of age. It .will be seen that the Austrian and German refugee problem is rather social than economic.
Sir John Hope Simpson in his book The Refugee Question affirms that there is no recorded case of a country which suffered by the assimilation of a refugee immigrant population. At first a liability, refugees in the long run are a source of wealth and prosperity to those who hold out a welcoming hand to them. As long ago as the twelfth century Flemish weavers found a new home for themselves and their craft in the Welsh valleys, and the early development of the cloth industry in England is in no small measure due to the influx of refugees fleeing from persecution, religious or political, on the. Continent. Protestant colonies of Flemish and Walloon weavers seeking refuge from the Duke of Alva's persecution in the Low 'Countries did much to establish textile industries in East Anglia in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and they were followed a century; later, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by roo,000 Huguenots from France, who in their turn established fine cambric (the term is derived from Cambrai in France), glassware and other industries, bringing prosperity to England and impoverishment to France. It was Cromwell who allowed the Jews to return to England, and one of the oldest settlements, established in Leeds, played some part in the rise to fame and prosperity of that city. Jewish merchants and financiers followed William of Orange,.and were encouraged by his liberal policy and that of the Hanoverians to settle heie.
In other countries it has been the same story. The prosperity of the United States is indissolubly bound up with a progressive immigration policy towards refugees of every kind who, shaking the dust of Europe off their feet for reasons of race, religion or politics, strove to make a New World across the seas ; and in our own day we have seen how Greece, a small and impoverished country, was able to absorb into her own internal economy a million refugees from Asia Minor, thereby establishing the age-old Smyrna silk industry on a new footing on her own shores.
Yet, in spite of these facts, our own Government before the war, with memories of the dole vividly in mind, was obsessed with the fear of increasing unemployment, and while treating the refugee problem with the greatest syMpathy, urged the organisations handling the refugees to arrange for their re-emigration as speedily as possible. Thus many able specialists, scientists and research workers were allowed to go on to America, and those who stayed sometimes became an involuntary burden to themselves and to the hosts who had sponsored their entry here, as they were forbidden to enter most forms of paid- employment.
The war and the shortage of man-power has changed the whole picture. One by one these unhappy regulations have been relaxed. Unemployment is no lonFer a serious problem: as an example, the W.V.S. Refugee Department in Paddington, which used to have over 700 cases on its books, now has 16, and these are people either too old or two young for employment. The right to work has at last been conceded in most professions, and Boo alien doctors and dentists (of whom about 450 are German and Austrian) are now allowed to practise in certain branches of the medical profession. The musicians were not so fortunate. For a long time the engage- ment of foreign musicians was so hedged in with regulations that many were unable to accept engagements even in their spare time, and Dame Myra Hess's plea in a letter to The Times a year ago that " foreign artists are needed to provide variety in our daily round of music-making " was unavailing. The fact that Czechs and Poles and other gifted Allies had to comply with these same regula- tions made them no less onerous. Now at long last a beginning has been made, and in October last foreign musicians were put theoretically at least on the same footing as regards public engage- - ments as British musicians, though in practice a general permit is not now granted to a refugee, so that special permission has to be obtained by the artist for each engagement. Permits are not, of course, granted to men of military age. who would, had they been British, have been called up for military service, nor are they granted to any musicians but those of established reputation.
The position with regard to refugee industries presents a more encouraging picture. Industries formerly carried on in Central Europe have been re-started in South Wales, Tyneside, Cumberland, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Of the 303 refugee factories in Britain nearly too arc established on the Government Trading Estates. Austrians and Germans have had their part in the successful establishment of new industries, many of which are due to indi- vidual initiative. Experts in the fur trade once centred in Leipzig have brought their trade secrets with them, and combining with the expert workers in London have produced furs which for dressing, dyeing and processing are far in advance of anything seen here previously. As first-fruits, the Fur Trade Export Group, sponsored by the Board of Trade, sent a delegation to North and South America in 1941 with a remarkable collection of furs, and were thereby able to bring back contracts providing much-needed foreign exchange at a time when it was essential to pay our way with foreign currency.
The list of articles being manufactured on the Government Trading Estates by refugees is too long to recite, but it includes all kinds of plastic goods, leather belting, paints and enamels, paper and fibre boards, chemicals for industry and research work, electric batteries and torches, knitted wear and all kinds of leather goods, including boots and shoes. The manufacture of war materials is " very substantial indeed." Incidentally, the diamond industry, established a century ago at Hatton Garden, has been reinforced by skilled refugee workeis from Holland, who are now in great demand for. precision instrument-making. Many refugees brought engineer- ing and scientific' designs with them, which they have put at the disposal of British firms, others brought only their experience and capacity. Of all the rich gifts which the refugees have brought to these shores, those of the research workers and specialists are not the least, for many a key man has- been the means of providing employment for British workers. One refugee factory, for instance, taming out fabric and leather gloves, employs 25o British workers, all trained by four refugee experts. It is estimated that the refugee industries already established here should be the means of providing employment for • ioo,00c British workers after the war. One of the most encouraging notes struck in this report is the co- operation which is taking place between different bodies in dealing with the refugee problem. The Christian Council, formed in October, 1938, has co-ordinated the work of Anglican, Roman Catholic and Free Church bodies as well as the Society of Friends, and co-operated with the Central Council for Jewish Refugees, which has been at work since May, 1933. The latter has contributed no less a sum than five million pounds towards the support of refugees of Jewish race, regardless of whether they were Christians or not.
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