Mexican Jewish Leaders Celebrate Reinstatement of Cremieux Decree

High tribute was paid here to Maurice Garreau Dombasle, representative of the French Committee for National Liberation, and to Jacob Landau, executive director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, at a luncheon marking the reinstatement of the Cremieux Decree at which Leon Bchar, head of the Jewish Central Committee, and other leaders of the Jewish community in Mexico were the principal speakers.

The Mexican Jewish leaders also lauded the Swedish Government for its warm and humane interest in the Jews of Denmark. They praised the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for the role it has played in the fight to have the Cremieux Decree restored, thus enabling the native Jews in Algiers to re-acquire French citizenship. Mr. Dombasle, speaking at the luncheon, emphasized that the reinstatement of the Cremieux Decree was an act consistent with the traditional French attitude towards the Jews. Soviet Ambassador Constantine Oumansky was among those present at the luncheon.

George S. Messersmith, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, regretting his inability to be present, sent a message which read: “I am confident that this war which we will win, will do away with discriminations which have affected the Jewish people so disastrously. I think that you know my actions in the past sufficiently well to know the strong attitude I have taken in this matter, wherein I have only been carrying through consistently my government’s policy.”