The Hemisphere: Wide Open Door

Canada dug deeper into its purse and opened its immigration doors wide last week for the refugees from Hungary. Revamping and liberalizing its whole program of refugee relief, the government:

¶ Increased the original appropriation for loans to immigrants from $200,000 to $1,000,000.

¶ Removed all limits on Hungarian immigration. Canada will admit as many refugees as want to come, requiring no character references or rigid physical examinations. Explained an immigration officer: “About all a Hungarian will have to do is be alive.”

¶ Promised free transportation to Canada by plane or ship, instead of the original plan to give the immigrants government transportation loans (repayable in two years). Canadian Pacific and Trans-Canada Air Lines have already begun government-chartered flights from Vienna, while Canada-bound ships from Europe have been asked to take aboard as many as they can accommodate, regardless of the expense. Said a government official: “We’re just telling them: ‘Get the people here, and then we’ll settle up.’ “

As soon as word of Canada’s more generous relief program reached Europe, there was a rush of refugees to the Canadian immigration office in Vienna. About 1,000 visas had been issued, at the rate of 100 applicants a day, under the government-loan scheme; the daily rate rose to 300 after the new free transportation offer was announced.