Affidavits in behalf of Henry Ford were filed with the clerk of the United States District Court, New York, in the $200,000 libel suit started by Herman Bernstein nearly four years ago against Henry Ford.
The affidavits include depositions made by six prominent Russian monarchists and purport mainly to refute the charges of Mr. Bernstein that a “Russian Committee for Saving the Fatherland” had carried on in the United States anti-Semitic activities, Constantinople being the headquarters of the committee.
The witnesses were cross-examined before Donald F. Bigelow, American Consul General in Paris. Federal Judge Hand granted a motion last July for a commission on interrogatories, holding the testimony would not be vital enough to warrant the expense of free examination by an open committee in Europe. The examination was limited to questions approved by Judge Hand.
Paul Shotilof, Chief of Staff of Gen. Wrangel’s White Army, denied the committee mentioned by Mr. Bernstein ever existed, said that persons named as members of the committee never had existed to and charged that documents quoted to prove the committee’s existence had been forged.
Nicolai Petrovich Yakimov, an attache of the Imperial Russian Embassy in Constantinople, denied the existence of secret consular archives mentioned by Mr. Bernstein and stated that if the anti-Semitic committee existed it was composed of “impostors and legally irresponsible persons.”
Igor V. Krivoshein denied that his father, A. V. Krivoshein, President of Wrangel’s Cabinet, who was alluded to in the Bernstein articles, had been anti-Semitic, and G. V. Glinka, former Imperial Minister of Agriculture, said he had never heard Krivoshein express anti-Semitic sentiments.
A. Le Pelletier, an official of the former White Russian Red Cross, denied knowledge of a Russian conspiracy against Jews.
Lieut. Gen. Alexander Loukinsky, an Imperial division commander who later was chief of Gen. Denikin’s Cabinet, said he did not know whether or not the Constantinople meetings mentioned by Mr. Bernstein had occurred, but he knew some of those mentioned had not attended such meetings.
“It is quite certain that the Jews were a liability to Russia,” said Loukinsky, alleging that power had been attained by many Jewish shopkeepers and money-lenders through Jewish organizations.
Mr. Bernstein returns today on the Homeric.
Plans for raising $125,000 to provide $2,500 scholarships for training Jewish children in religious schools were discussed at a conference of communal leaders at the Unity Club, Brooklyn, on Saturday. The meeting was called by Benjamin C. Ribman for the Jewish Educational Association. which is seeking $500,000 in New York City and vicinity for such schools.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
