Convention Concerning the Status of Refugees Coming from Germany [With Final Act] Geneva, February 10, 1938. The Convention has not been ratified by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom

It is interesting to note that E.N. Cooper on behalf of His Majesty’s Government rejected Article 14 of the League of Nations proffered solution to the refugee problem. “Article 14 cannot be accepted, owing to the special position of schools and universities in the United Kingdom” (p.19). The Article, concerning education, would have provided that “refugees enjoy in the schools, courses, faculties and universities…treatment as favorable as other foreigners in general” (pp. 10-12). The United Kingdom also stipulated “that it does not assume any obligations in respect of any of its Colonies, Protectorates, overseas territories, territorities under suzerainty, or territories administered under mandate” (p.19). Thus Palestine, a British Mandate, was safeguarded against the entry of German-Jewish refugees