In an unopposed election held May 16 General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was unanimously chosen President for a third term. The then President, Manuel de Jesús Troncosa de la Concha, promptly resigned and General Trujillo took office at once, thus once more officially heading the Government which he has, in fact, controlled for a number of years.
The population of Sosua, the refugee settlement in the Dominican Republic is 482. Though small, it is important as a laboratory experiment for future refugee settlements. The members are carefully selected, primarily for their experience in agriculture, and are settled and financed by the Dominican Republic Settlement Association of New York. The land is a donation from General Trujillo. The Dominican Government has guaranteed the settlers full and complete freedom. Most of them are Jewish but the settlement contains some Protestants and Catholics as well. After Pearl Harbor further settlement was discontinued for the duration of the war. It is planned for the duration to keep Sosuan economy on a subsistence basis, but following the war, it is hoped to open local Dominican markets and also to grow cash crops to be marketed in Puerto Rico. A report of the survey made by the Falk Foundation and concerning the Dominican Republic's refugee absorptive capacity, recently published by the Brookings Institute, is pessimistic on the whole. It estimates 5,000 as an upper limit of refugees who could be accommodated, rather than President Trujillo's 100,000, and it is critical of the management to date. Nevertheless, President Trujillo has made another attempt to build up the population of the Republic by a proposal to Vichy to transport to the island and care for 3,500 homeless European children.
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