Extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet
'Refugees who arrived at Cork on m.v. "Victory": Arrangements concerning their departure'
(GC 5/142) (Item 5) (S11007)

Following consideration of memoranda dated the 1st December, 1949,¹ and the 15th December, 1949,² submitted by the Minister for Justice relative to the Estonian and other refugees who arrived at Cork on the m.v. 'Victory', it was decided

1. that no action should be taken, for the present, regarding payment, from State funds, of the fares of those refugees who have been granted visas to enter Canada;
2. that the refugees should be informed
   • that there is no possibility of their being allowed to sail on the M.V. 'Victory'; and
   • that they cannot expect to be maintained here indefinitely, that they should make whatever arrangements they can to leave the country and that the Government cannot undertake to defray their affairs;
3. that the Irish Red Cross Society should be asked to encourage the refugees to leave the country and to refuse to maintain any refugee who neglects to leave when he or she is in a position to do so; and
4. that the matter should be reviewed again in a month's time.