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Volume 9 1948~1951

Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 399 NAI TSCH/3/S11007B/1

Memorandum by the Department of Justice
'Refugee Ship "Victory"'

Dublin, 1 December 1949

  1. The Minister for Justice would be glad if the Government would give further consideration to the position of the refugees in Cork who arrived from Sweden on the 'Victory' on 30th September, 1949.
  2. Position to date:
    • It will be recollected that, with Government approval, the Minister for Industry and Commerce, prohibited the 'Victory' from leaving Cork, as it was unseaworthy. The refugees have been housed in the Military Camp at Rockgrove near Cork since the beginning of October and the Red Cross are providing for their maintenance at a cost of approximately £40 per day. The Red Cross Society state that they cannot continue to provide for the refugees unless they get a State grant. At the request of the Minister for External Affairs the Canadian Authorities sent immigration officials to Cork to examine the refugees with a view to granting them visas for Canada. The examination has been completed, and it is expected that in the near future the Canadians will grant visas to over 300 out of the 367 refugees. A small number are likely to be rejected on security grounds and health grounds.
    • Three hundred and eighty persons arrived on the 'Victory', 16 have already left by air for Canada and 3 children were born in Cork. This leaves 367 in Cork. Of the 367, 147 are males over 16, 132 are females over 16 and 88 are children under 16. They are made up of 85 families, comprising 290 persons, and 77 single persons. About 70 persons have enough money ($150 per head) to pay their fares to Canada. Some of the others have small sums and some are penniless.
  3. Cost of transport:
    • Informal inquiries have been made in regard to the cost of transporting the refugees to Canada. It is understood that the Canadians have a government scheme, under which immigrants, on agreeing to take up specified work and undertaking to refund the money, get their fares paid from the port of arrival in Canada to their destinations. Accordingly only the cost of transport to a Canadian port need be considered. The 'tourist' fare on regular passenger ships to Canada is about £50 from a British port, but there may be difficulty in securing sufficient accommodation for several months. First class accommodation costs £78. Transport by air could be arranged. The ordinary cost is £108 but Trans-Canada Airlines have quoted £72 per head for the group, and lower rates may be obtainable. Irish Shipping say that it would be almost impossible to charter a ship for the transport of the refugees at the present time. They estimate that the cost would be from £12,000 to £15,000. It would not be practicable to convert an Irish Shipping vessel, as very substantial structural alterations would be necessary to enable adequate cooking and sanitary facilities to be provided.
  4. Views of Inter-Departmental Conference:
    • A conference was held in the Department of Justice on 12th November of representatives of the Departments of Agriculture, Defence, External Affairs, Industry and Commerce and Justice to consider the position of the refugees. The general opinion of the conference was that the State should not undertake liability for the transport of the refugees to Canada or elsewhere, unless it becomes clear that the refugees cannot pay their own way and that they could not be absorbed into employment here. There are two strong objections to paying the fares:
      1. that the State could hardly justify paying fares for aliens, when no doubt, many Irish people would like to emigrate to Canada if their passage were paid; and
      2. that paying the fares of these refugees might encourage other shiploads of refugees to come from Sweden to Ireland.
    • The general view of the conference was that it should be made clear to the refugees at once, that the State will not undertake liability for their transport to Canada, that they cannot expect to be fed for an indefinite period in Rockgrove Camp, that we expect them to make their own arrangements if possible for travel to Canada or elsewhere and that we expect any refugees, who have not enough money to pay their own fares, to work for their maintenance while they remain here. As already indicated, about 70 of the refugees have enough money to pay their own fares. In addition a few families have sums of from 50 to 300 dollars, but it seems clear that the great majority of the refugees are definitely not in a position to pay their fares or to pay any substantial amount of the fares. If the ship could be sold, the proceeds would probably pay all the fares. Irish Shipping Limited estimate its value at £15,000 to £17,000. There probably would be serious difficulty about selling it, however, as there are disputes as to who are shareholders in it. Furthermore, even if it were sold, the shareholders would probably be unwilling to pay the fares of other passengers out of the proceeds.
    • It is likely, therefore, that we will have left on our hands nearly 300 refugees. The view of the conference was that these people should be encouraged to take up employment, and that the Red Cross should be advised not to provide maintenance for any of them who may be unwilling to work. About 75% of the male adults were in industrial occupations in their own countries and were engaged in agricultural work in Sweden. Apart from household duties, about 50% of the women are listed as textile workers and dressmakers. The refugees are nearly all under 40 years of age. They appear to be healthy and robust, and those of them who could not get skilled employment here should be quite capable of undertaking heavy work. It is understood that there is a shortage of labour on the Erne hydro-electric scheme and the turf schemes. It might be possible to find employment for a big percentage of the refugees on these schemes and to provide housing for the families of refugees. Others, no doubt, could get employment as agricultural labourers and domestic servants. The question of absorbing the refugees into employment has not been fully considered, but the representatives of the Department of Industry and Commerce and Agriculture indicated at the conference that their Departments would be unlikely to raise any objections. Housing for the refugees' wives and children would be the main problem. Language would be a difficulty also - the majority of the refugees do not know any English - but if they could get employment in groups this difficulty would be reduced. If the Government approved in principle of the idea of absorbing the refugees into employment, the Departments of Industry and Commerce and Justice could examine the whole problem. A number of the refugees who have some money already, if permitted, to take up employment, might save enough money to make up their fares to Canada. The majority, however, being married people with children, could hardly do so. Some might get employment in Great Britain, but we would have to face the possibility that a big percentage of them would remain here permanently.
    • The Department of External Affairs put forward the view at the conference that those refugees who are refused visas for Canada or are unable to pay their fares to Canada and do not possess any special skill which would justify the grant of employment permits in the ordinary way, should be sent back to Sweden. The Department admitted the possibility that Sweden might refuse to accept them but thought that the effort should be made in order to discourage an influx of further refugees from Sweden.
  5. Recommendation of Minister for Justice:
    • On reconsideration the Minister for Justice recommends that the Government should approve of the recommendations of the inter-departmental conference which are:-
      1. that the State should not undertake liability for the transport of the refugees and that the refugees should be informed of this at once;
      2. that the refugees should be told that they cannot expect to be supported indefinitely, and that they should either make arrangements to leave the country or to look for approved work;
      3. that the Departments of Industry and Commerce and Justice should examine the problems of absorbing the refugees into employment;
      4. that the Red Cross Society should be asked to try to arrange cheap fares for the refugees who can pay their passages to Canada; and
      5. that the Red Cross Society should be advised not to provide free maintenance for any refugee who declines to take up employment approved by the Department of Industry and Commerce.
    • The Departments of Finance, External Affairs, Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and Defence have been consulted and none of these Departments has any objection to the foregoing recommendation, except the Department of External Affairs, which recommends consideration should be given to the recommendation set out in sub-paragraph (d) of paragraph (4).
  6. Matters raised by the Department of Finance
    The Department of Finance have asked that the following two matters should be included in the memorandum with a view to obtaining decisions by the Government on them:-
    1. Sections 18 and 19 of the Public Assistance Act, 1939, impose on the local authority the duty to provide public assistance for all or some of these refugees. It is understood, however, that the Government has decided informally that no contribution towards the cost of maintaining the refugees should be sought from the local authority. It is considered desirable that the decision should now be confirmed formally by the Government.
    2. The Irish Red Cross Society is incurring expenditure amounting, it is understood, to about £1,200 a month in providing for the maintenance of these refugees. The Minister for Defence has proposed that the Central Council of the Society be informed that provision will be made in the Estimate for Defence, 1950/51 for the recoupment to the Society, by way of a grant-in-aid, of such expenditure as it may incur in enabling the Cork Branch to continue to undertake the maintenance of the refugees. It is not clear whether an assurance has been given to the Society on this point, but the Society seems to be working on the assumption that a refund in full will be made. The Minister for Finance has no objection to the payment of a grant restricted to the expenditure by the Society on this particular lot of refugees, but he considers that the Society should be informed that the making of a grant in this particular instance does not imply the acceptance in principle of any obligation by the State to refund to the Society any expenditure which it might incur in respect of refugees in general.
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