March 2008 Explaining British Refugee Policy, March 1938 – July 1940 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History in the University of Canterbury by Fiona Horne Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Preface 1 Chapter 1 – Background, context, historiography 3 Chapter 2 – Conflicting forces 16 Chapter 3 – The primacy of international events 50 Chapter 4 – National security versus humanitarianism 72 Conclusion 88 Bibliography 97 Acknowledgements In the writing of my thesis, my thanks goes above all to my supervisors Dr Gareth Pritchard and Dr Chris Connolly. I am extremely grateful for the constant enthusiasm and encouragement they have shown me while I have been researching and writing my thesis. My thesis would not be what it is without their contribution. I would like to thank the staff of the National Archives and the National Newspaper Library in London, the Mass- Observation Archive held at the University of Sussex, and the University of Canterbury Central Library. Thanks also to Carly and Ben, the Couldwells and the Sykes for providing me with accommodation while I was researching in the UK; to my colleges especially Marcus, Luke, Jerry, Rosemary, Brian and Helen, for their friendship, advice and coffee breaks; to my friends and family who showed an interest in my research and regularly asked for updates; to my parents, Barb and Max, for their financial and emotional support, and to my sister Meredith. i Abstract The twentieth century has aptly been referred to the century of the refugee.1 In the twentieth century, refugees became an important international problem which seriously affected relations between states and refugee issues continue to play an important part in international relations in the twenty-first century. The refugee crisis created by the Nazis in the 1930s was without precedent and the British government was unsure how to respond. British refugee policy was still in a formative stage and was therefore susceptible to outside influences. This dissertation aims to explain the key factors that drove British refugee policy in the period March 1938 to July 1940, and to evaluate their relative significance over time. I divided the period of study into three phases (March-September 1938, October 1938 to August 1939, September 1939 to July 1940), in order to explore how a range of factors varied in importance in a political and international environment that was rapidly changing. In considering how to respond to the refugee crisis, the British government was hugely influenced by concerns over its relations with other countries, especially Germany. There is little doubt that, during the entire period of this study, the primary influence on the formation and implementation of British refugee policy was the international situation. However, foreign policy did not by itself dictate the precise form taken by British refugee policy. The response of the British government was modulated by economic concerns, domestic political factors, humanitarianism, and by the habits, traditions and assumptions of British political culture. Some factors, like anti-Semitism became less important during the period of this study, while others like humanitarianism increased in importance. 1 T. Kushner and K. Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide (London, 1999), p. 1. ii Preface In 1996, Hugo Gryn, a Holocaust survivor, stated that he believed future historians would call “the twentieth century not only the century of great wars, but also the century of the refugee”.1 Numerous refugee exoduses occurred throughout the twentieth century all over the globe. These include refugees caused by the two World Wars, people fleeing fascism, refugees from the Cold War and those seeking asylum towards the end of the century. Refugee movements are not new to the twentieth century, but as Claudena Skran mentions, “twentieth-century refugee movements significantly differ from earlier ones in this important respect: they attracted the attention of political leaders and became international issues.”2 In the twentieth century, refugees became an important international problem which seriously affected relations between states and refugee issues continue to play an important part in international relations in the twenty-first century. “Despite the end of the Cold War”, as Claudena Skran comments, “the refugee issue shows no signs of disappearing”.3 By the end of 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated the that total population of concern to it was 32.9 million persons with the global number of refugees 9.9 million persons, excluding the 4.4 million Palestinian refugees who fall under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.4 According to UNHCR estimates, by the end of 2006 there were some 2.1 million Afghan refugees “accounting for one fifth of the global refugee population. Iraq was the second largest country of origin of refugees (1.5 million), followed by Sudan (686,000), Somalia (460,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (402,000), and Burundi (397,000).5 Refugee issues are not simply problems calling for humanitarian concern. According to Gil Loescher: “They can be a potential threat to the social, economic, and political fabric of host states, and ultimately a threat to peace”.6 It is becoming evident, Loescher continues, that the notion that “refugee movements pose humanitarian problems marginal 1 Quoted in T. Kushner and K. Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide (London, 1999), p. 1. 2 C. Skran, Refugees in Inter-War Europe (Oxford, 1995), p. 13. 3 Ibid., p. 1. 4 UNHCR, Statistical Yearbook 2006 (Geneva, 2007), p. 7. 5 Ibid., p. 8. 6 G. Loescher, “Introduction: Refugees Issues in International Relations” in G. Loescher and L. Monahan, Refugees and International Relations (Oxford, 1989), p, 2. 1 to the central issues of war and peace, or that they are unique and isolated events, must be superseded by a serious consideration of refugee problems as an integral part of international politics and relations”.7 This view is becoming more accepted and refugee issues are being given greater consideration in international relations, domestic politics and in media coverage. 1938-40 was an important period in the history of refugee movements. Sir Herbert Emerson, The League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, estimated in a report to the League of Nations Assembly in October 1939 that a total of 400,000 refugees had left Greater Germany since 1933.8 The British government had little experience dealing with the kind of refugee crisis generated by the Nazis. Refugee policy was still in a formative stage and was therefore susceptible to outside influences. During this period, British refugee policy underwent numerous changes in a very short period of time. This dissertation aims to explain the key factors that drove British refugee policy in the period March 1938 to July 1940, and to evaluate their relative significance over time. I divided the period of study into three phases (March-September 1938, October 1938 to August 1939, September 1939 to July 1940), in order to explore how a range of factors varied in importance in a political and international environment that was rapidly changing. 7 Ibid. 8 A. Sherman, Island Refuge (Essex, 1994), p. 270. 2 Chapter 1 Background, context, historiography This chapter is divided into three sections and is intended to establish the historical and historiographical context. It will also discuss the primary sources used and establish a methodology and analytical framework. The first section, which discusses the historical background, will deal with Britain’s immigration policy in the first part of the twentieth century focusing on the four key pieces of legislation. Then it will give an overview of the chronological parameters of the study. The second section, which focuses on the historiography, will discuss both the wider literature on refugees as well as the specific historiography on refugees in Britain between 1938 and 1940. The third section will describe the key primary sources used by the main authors in this field as well as the sources used in this dissertation. Historical background The regulatory framework within which refugee issues were dealt with in the period 1938-40 was formed by a series of four government measures enacted between 1905 and 1920. This legislation remained in effect until after World War Two and controlled the immigration of refugees from Germany into Britain from 1933 to 1938. From 1826 to 1905 there was effectively total freedom of immigration to Britain, and although several regulations were passed they were never enforced.9 In 1905 The Aliens Act was introduced, largely in response to anti-immigrant reaction which opposed large-scale immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe. This act introduced a system of regulating aliens at the ports. It subjected the majority of the poorest class of immigrants to inspection by immigration officers, but placed no fundamental obstacles in front of the majority of alien visitors.10 The Aliens Act of 1905 empowered immigration officers to 9 B. Wasserstein, “The British Government and the German immigration 1933-1945” in G. Hirschfeld, Exile in Great Britain (London, 1984), p. 63. 10 L. London, Whitehall and the Jews 1933-1948 (Cambridge, 2000), p. 16. 3 deny entry to undesirables (such as the diseased, criminals, the insane) and