Truman Receives B’nai B’rith Delegation; Praises Organization’s Wartime Service

President Truman today received a delegation of B’nai B’rith officials, headed by Henry Monsky, president, who reported on the three-day conference being held here to establish the National Veterans Advisory Committee of B’nai B’rith.

The President told the delegation he was highly pleased with the B’nai B’rith war service record and expressed gratification that the organization is marshalling its 265,000 members to continue this service in the post-war years.

A call for “honest solutions before selfish interest” to meet veterans’ needs was issued by General Omar N. Bradley, Veterans Administrator, at a luncheon today climaxing the conference.

General Bradley expressed the thanks of the Veterans Administration for B’nai B’rith’s wartime services and for their continuing post-war services. “Contributing generously to men and women of all creeds, all races, all colors,” Bradley said, “you left unquestioned the hyphenated origins of their birth, the color of their parents, the spelling of their names. It was essentially a service by Americans for Americans.

Stressing the “snarl of individual problems” facing veterans now, Bradley lauded B’nai B’rith for “not backsliding into the dangerous assumption that the ending of hostilities also means the ending of the war,” and declared that B’nai B’rith’s “best measure of accomplishment is the added happiness brought to servicemen who benefited from your gifts.”

Mr. Monsky presided at the luncheon, and with Lt. Col. Elliott A. Hiles, acting chairman of the National Veterans Advisory Committee, and Sidney G. Kusworm, chairman of the B’nai B’rith Americanism Commission, presented General Bradley with an inscribed pledge of continued peace time service.

Guests at the luncheon included Congressional leaders and representatives of the Army, Navy and other Federal departments dealing with veterans’ affairs.