PROJECT “M” AS A COMPONENT PART OF AMERICAN RELIEF POLICY CONCERNING EUROPEAN REFUGEES
Journal Title: Вчені записки Таврійський національний університет імені В.І. Вернадського. Серія: Історичні науки - Year 2018, Vol 29, Issue 4
Abstract
The article is devoted to a little-known episode from the American humanitarian policy during the WW II aimed to assist European refugees. A comprehensive theoretical analysis and the solution of the existing and potential problems of forced migrants was carried out within the framework of the “M” project. It was sanctioned and launched due to a personal initiative of US President Franklin Roosevelt at the end of 1942. The work of the “M” Project committee” was conducted at a wartime period and when international institutes with jurisdiction on refugees showed low effectiveness. Moreover, in a similar crisis, there was Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees founded by the American leader four years prior. However, Roosevelt did not abandon his policy of assistance to political refugees from Central Europe proclaimed by him in March 1938 deciding to strengthen its analytical and theoretical support. Project “M” is one of examples of American geopolitical forecasting carried out during the WW II. The solution to the refugees’ problem became one of the important aspects of American planning of the future of the post-war world. Well-known American scientists as geographer Isaiah Bowman and archaeologist Henry Field became the leading runners of the “M” Project. Other American scholars and specialists also collaborated on a permanent or temporary basis with the Bowman-Field group. In addition to the scholars, translators, lecturers and proofreaders, stenographers, secretaries, cartographers were involved in the process. Project related work of various technical workers and analysts was carried out in several directions, conventionally summarized in six series – reports, translations, memorandums and analytical notes, lectures, administrative and special series. During the project specialists prepared approximately 650 volumes of various documents which contained schemes for resettlement and studies of the potential of economic development (colonization) of different territories to solve the problem of European refugees and other issues of population. Therefore, among the most important topics that were worked out by analysts involved in the project were the issues of the post-war world organization (the future of Germany and ways to overcome the demographic crisis), the analysis of legal procedure of migration process under the normative and legal acts of the countries of the world, planning measures to prevent possible post-war refugee crisis in Europe. One of the most important tasks of the group was fully analyze the settlement opportunities of all suitable areas of the world concerning the resettlement of European Jews. The foreign practice of refugee placement, the experience of resettlement of large groups of population and the development of new territories were researched. Also, the potential for the compact settlement of forced migrants (British Guiana, Venezuela, the Belgian Congo, Australia, Palestine, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Angola, Uganda, South Rhodesia, Peru, Ecuador and many others) was studied in detail. Project “M” activities were cut shortly after the death of Franklin Roosevelt by his successor US President Harry S. Truman. The research on the activities of the Bowman-Field Committee is an important page in the history of US policy of assistance to European political refugees.
Authors and Affiliations
В. В. Юшкевич
Keywords
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