Polish orphans of Pahiatua

There was an article in today's newspaper, taken from The Times about the Brexit debate. It was written by the eminent journalist and political activist Daniel Finkelstein, Baron Finkelstein. He argues that Europe's battle scars should bring Europeans together, an argument to keep Britain in Europe. His grandparents came from Lviv, now Ukraine, then Poland. His grandfather fought in Anders' Army, the Polish army recruited from the Polish exiles in the Soviet Union, which fought by the side of the Russians. The family was transported, from their place of exile in Siberia to Iran together with 77,000 soldiers, and 43,000 civilians, which included 20,000 children [Story of the Polish Children of Pahiatua]. Some of these children left behind in Iran needed a place to go to. The Polish Government in London appealed to the League of Nations for help in finding temporary refuge for the Polish civilians and children. Mrs. Fraser, wife of the New Zealand Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, met socially someone from the Polish Government and was told of the plight of these children and persuaded her husband to bend New Zealand's immigration policy and accept, in the end 733 children and 102 caregivers, which included a priest. The children were Catholic. Although there were many Jewish civilians, including children, like Daniel Finkelstein's grandparents among the Polish refugees in Iran, they didn't make it to New Zealand. The New Zealand government's policy was that no Jews were allowed to come. Jews were perceived as hard to assimilate, even though Jews had lived here since before colonization, before 1840 and had a record of assimilation better than most, many became exemplary citizens and leading public figure. The government was also concerned that by allowing more Jews to enter the country more Jews would bring with them more anti-Semitism. When after the war New Zealand accepted refugees from the Baltic states and other parts of Eastern Europe, many of whom harboured, no doubt, anti-Semitic sentiments, no such concern was evident. Polish Jewish children, stranded in Iran were not allowed to come to New Zealand. They were diverted to Palestine. Three years later New Zealand was one of the first counties in the UN to vote for the establishment of Israel in 1947. It suited the New Zealand Government to wash its hands of the world wide Jewish refugee problem.  They wished it on the Arabs.