To the Editor of the Crimson:

The prohibition against entry which led to the sinking of the steamship Struma with the loss of seven hundred and fifty lives reveals in the most tragic way that appeasement still guides the British Colonial Office. These people had fled the Hitler terror in Rumania; they were seeking admission to the Jewish National Homeland. The refusal of the British to admit them was an infringement of the League Mandate under which England governs Palestine, a Mandate approved by the Congress of the United States. More than that, it was a denial of those principles of human justice for which the United Nations are waging war.

The arrival of the Struma's passengers was eagerly awaited by the Jewish population of Palestine. These men and women could have served in the armed forces, could have helped in meeting the labor shortage caused by the voluntary enlistment of fifteen thousand Palestinian Jews in the British forces.

The British Government is still unable to realize the conflict between its selfish imperial interests and the necessity for defeating the Axis through the mobilization of all the democratic forces in the world. It has allowed men and women to die whose loyalty and potential contribution to the cause of freedom cannot be questioned.

Executive Committee. Harvard Avukah.