International > Report on the work of the High Commission for Refugees presented by Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to the fourth Assembly

Some account of what the Constantinople Office of the High Commission of the League
of Nations for Refugees has been able to accomplish during the year under review to improve
the situation of these various refugees appears in the relevant chapters of the reports.
This record would not be complete without grateful acknowledgment of the valued
support and co-operation of the American Red Cross, the American Relief Administration
and the Near East Relief, under the leadership of Admiral Bristol, and of the assistance of
the Allied High Commissioners and of the diplomatic representatives of the States Members
represented in Constantinople, without whose help the solution of the Constantinople
refugee problems would have been well-nigh impossible.
To General Harington and to the forces under his command a special tribute must be
paid ; without his effective aid and sympathy, these problems would probably never have
been dealt with so successfully as they have been.
The peculiar conditions prevailing at Constantinople necessarily focussed public attention
on the Russian refugee question in that area, but, as a matter of fact, there were at the same
time many hundreds of thousands of refugees in Germany and Poland whose plight still
gives rise to the very gravest anxiety, whilst the burdens carried by Bulgaria, the Kingdom
of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Roumania also call for the most sympathetic con¬
sideration. Since the last Assembly, both the Polish and Roumanian Governments have for
economic reasons been obliged to insist on the departure of a large number of refugees
from their territories, and the High Commission has to record its thanks to them for sus¬
pending at its request expulsion decrees directed against certain categories of refugees in
order to enable the High Commission, in conjunction with private relief organisations, to
secure the satisfactory evacuation of the refugees concerned.
With money obtained from various sources, the High Commission has been enabled to
contribute to the welfare of invalids and child refugees and to secure their transfer from
time to time to more satisfactory conditions.
It may be interesting here to refer briefly to the manner in which the High Commission
has, when sufficient funds were placed at its disposal, been able to accomplish a useful piece
of work, not only for the refugees concerned but for one of the Members of the League. The
British Government had assumed responsibility for about 4,500 refugees in Cyprus, Egypt
and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and invited the High Commission to
assist it in liquidating this responsibility. Within a very short space of time, the High
Commission succeeded in transferring the large majority of the refugees in Egypt and Cyprus
to other countries, where they were enabled to become self-supporting, and made an arrange¬
ment for the liquidation of the problem of the remainder in the Kingdom of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes. This transaction was completed, with the exception of a few isolated
difficult cases, within a few months, at a small cost per head as compared with their annual
maintenance, and with advantage to the refugees themselves as well as to the Member
concerned.
A considerable movement for a return to their country having manifested itself among
certain categories of the refugees, negotiations were opened with the Soviet Government
to secure satisfactory arrangements for their reception in Russia. Some 5,000 of the refugees
have been repatriated under this arrangement from Bulgaria and Greece, and the High
Commission’s representatives in Russia report that the concessions obtained from the Soviet
Government have been loyally observed.
2. Bulgarian Inhabitants expelled from Western Thrace.
The Council, at its meeting on April 21st, considered, at the request of the Bulgarian
Government, the question of the expulsion of certaih Bulgarian inhabitants from Western
Thrace to different parts of Greece, and requested the High Commission to do all in its
power to improve their situation.
In accordance with this request, the High Commissioner instructed his existing orga¬
nisation in Greece to examine the possibilities of improving the condition of the people con¬
cerned, and as a result, in close co-operation with the Greek authorities, has succeeded in
securing the issue by the Greek Government of rations and allowances to these people.
The High Commission has further, in conjunction with the Greek Government, examined
the possibility of securing the return to their homes of these deportees, and is happy to take
this opportunity of placing on record that the Greek Government has been able to see its
way to assent to the suggestion made by the High Commission that the moment has arrived
when these deportees could be re-established in their homes, and has been informed that
effect is already being given to this decision.
3. Asia Minor Refugees.
In compliance with the request made by the Third Assembly, the High Commission
has occupied itself very seriously with the problem raised by the events of the latter part
of last year in Asia Minor and has used every possible endeavour to bring assistance to the