London (Sep. 29)
An estimated 2,500 Jewish visaless immigrants reportedly heading for Palestine aboard two blockade runners may be returned to their countries of embarkation–Rumania and Bulgaria–a Foreign Office spokesman indicated here today.
He did not make a direct statement on what action the British Government contemplated, but pointed to the example of the Exodus refugees and their return to France. He reported that the government had been in touch with the governments of Rumania and Bulgaria.
The blockade runners referred to are the Paducah and the Northlands, which recently arrived in the Black Sea. They were in various French-Mediterranean ports for a number of months and the British charged that they were taking on supplies in preparation for a dash to Palestine.
(Reports from Istanbul last night stated that two visaless refugee transports, carrying some 3,600 Jews, had passed through the Dardanelles into the Mediterranean. The vessels are flying Panamanian flags and are understood to have given Havana as their destination.)