Source 2

Transcript

CABINET
POLISH FORCES COMMITTEE
THE REMOVAL OF POLISH REFUGEES FROM INDIA
Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies

1. In his memorandum (GEN.125/15) on the removal of Polish refugees from India, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India refers to the suggestion which was accepted by the Polish Forces (Official) Committee at a meeting held on the 1st July that a number of Polish refugees at present in India should be accommodated in the refugee camps in East Africa, either in addition to the existing numbers there or in place of the dependents of members of the Polish Second Corps removed from these camps to the U.K.

2. There are already some 17,000 Polish refugees in the East African Territories. The large majority of them are women and children accompanied by a small proportion of elderly or disabled men. The settlements are not, nor are they ever likely to be, self-supporting and they have consumed supplies and engaged the attention of administrative staff which the Government have ill been able to spare. The Polish refugees are not easy guests, and their presence, together with their inclination to force undesirable associations with Asians and Africans in the neighbourhood of the camps, has led to difficulties of personal relationships with all sections of the community, which the East African Governments are anxious to terminate as soon as possible.

3. The conditions under which these refugees were accepted for war-time domicile [home] in East Africa involved the construction of settlements consisting of temporary-type buildings situated in areas which are not suitable for permanent European settlement. For reasons of public health therefore, it would be unwise to allow these refugees to remain indefinitely where they now are, but the provision of alternative accommodation in the areas allocated for settlement by Europeans is not practicable. It is true that the East African territories have such areas, but they also have schemes and commitments for the settlement of Europeans, most of whom are ex-service men. Any proposal that land so allocated should now be re-allocated to the Polish refugees would inevitably cause most serious political repercussions.

4. The Polish refugees now in East Africa have been there since 1942. They were accepted by the East African Governments on the clear understanding that their accommodation in East Africa would be temporary and only for the duration of hostilities. Since the war came to an end, the East African Governments have reputedly sought assurances that they should be removed at the earliest possible moment. The intention is that those who are relatives of members of the Polish armed forces should in due course join their men folk when the latter are permanently settled in the U.K. or elsewhere. It is not clear what arrangements are to be made for those refugees who are not relatives of members of the armed forces (and it is in this class that the refugees whom it is proposed to remove from Indian fall), and the prospects of removing from East Africa those who are relatives remain still quite indefinite. Enquiries indicate that in any case the shipping situation would not allow of any movement this year, and the immediate acceptance of refugees from India would therefore involve an increase in the Polish refugee population.

5. The East African Governments are faced with grave problems of accommodation and resettlement in relation to the large numbers of Africans who are being demobilised from the armed forces raised during the war. A suggestion that at this time, when the continued presence of the Polish refugees already in East Africa is a source of growing social, political and administrative difficulty, the East African Governments should accept a further contingent of refugees drawn from a class whose resettlement offers the greatest problem, would have the most embarrassing political effects in these territories and would introduce yet another racial question in an area where racial complications are already a serious political issue.

6. The recommendations of the Official Committee was made without consultation with the Colonial Office, who were not invited to the discussion. It does not appear from the memorandum circulated by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India whether the possibilities of extending the arrangements for the temporary reception in the U.K. of members of the Polish armed forces and their relatives now in Italy to include this proportionately small number of refugees from India was considered. It may be that their accommodation in the U.K. would not raise practical or political difficulties on the scale which their accommodation in East Africa would arouse in the East African territories. However, that may be, if it is essential that the refugees should be removed from India, I must, for the reasons indicated, strongly resist the suggestion that they should be sent to East Africa, and urge that a solution should be sought which will not augment the already serious difficulties with which the East African Governments are faced in relation to the Polish refugee problem.

Colonial Office, S.W. 1
18th July 1946