WASHINGTON--President Roosevelt today called upon the Intergovernmental Committee on Political Refugees to formulate plans to provide homes for 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 men, women and children who may be made homeless by the European war.

Opening a two-day conference of the Committee's executive group, he emphasized that "this ghastly war" has enlarged the refugee problem from one "of comparatively small magnitude," involving about 200,000 to 300,000 persons, to one of world-wide significance.