Refugee Settlement in British Guiana

Abstract

THE United States has offered to send an expert Commission to investigate the possibilities of refugee settlement in British Guiana, and the offer has been accepted by the British Government, who have appointed additional members to the Commission. The terms of reference of the Commission are: To study and report upon the suitability and practicability of large-scale colonization in British Guiana for involuntary emigrants of European origin, from the physical, climatic and economic points of view; to estimate the approximate numbers that might be settled there (a) immediately, (b) over a term of years; to calculate the probable cost of such settlement: if mass colonization appears feasible, to recommend a general plan of settlement. The names of the members are: Dr. Edward C. Ernst, assistant director, Pan-American Sanitary Bureau (chairman); Colonel Howard U. Nicholas, United States Army Engineering Corps, Panama Canal; Dr. Joseph A. Rosen, Jewish colonization expert and agronomist; Mr. Emile C. Bataille, colonization expert with Canadian experience; Dr. Anthony Donovan, sanitary engineer; Mr. Desmond Holdridge, who has previous experience of the Colony (secretary). Sir Crawford Douglas-Jones, formerly Colonial Secretary of British Guiana; Sir Geoffrey Evans, formerly principal of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, now economic botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Dr. D. W. Duthie, agricultural chemist to the British Guiana Government, is being attached to the Commission for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Cormmision.