More than 50,000 veterans of all faiths today arched in a huge parade to protest the American reversal of policy on Palestine and to demand that the U.N. partition decision be upheld. The demonstration and a rally which was held at the end of the line of march were sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
Veterans from posts in 14 states swing down Fifth Avenue in the early morning hours carrying banners and placards and shouting slogans pledging support of the new Jewish state, saluting the Haganah and assailing ‘Arab appeasement’ as "un-American." is the marchers, many in uniform and all wearing service caps passed they were sheered by some 250,000 spectators. Among the demonstrators were men who had served in both World Wars and the Spanish-American War.
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, who was the chief speaker at the rally, asked President Truman and Secretary of state George C. Marshall why they took the initiative in calling a special session of the U. N. General Assembly to revoke partition when they insist that they still believe in it as a solution of the Palestine problem. Be also asked them why they were willing to join an international police force to enforce a trusteeship when they refused to do the same for partition.
"It is not yet too late for our country to return from a lamentable detour to the highway of a clear purpose and a fine, consistent position at the United Nations," Dr. Silver insisted. "Our government should re-affirm the position which It wisely ?ook last November In favor of solving the Palestine problem through partition, a position which the President of the United States and the Secretary of State endorsed and still endorse."
Asserting that "Palestine and petroleum will not mix" and the United States is sacrificing its honor in Palestine for the oil of Arabia, Sen. Owen Brewster of ##aine, another speaker, declared that America "stands stultified before world opinion" in seeking to support all at once a truce with the Grand Mufti, a trusteeship for Palestine under "some unknown trustee and supported presumably by American arms" and a partition plan "solemnly adopted after extensive study by more than two-thirds of the united Nations."
Brig. Gen. Julius Klein said: "We have marched today for something more than justice to the heroic people of Palestine. We have marched together as living evidence that the American people are determined to retain their national honor and Integrity." He added that "we ask no new or special privilege for the Jewish people of Palestine. We ask only in a time of international tension and unrest, our country stand fast by its traditional support for the just cause of a people who seek to secure themselves is a way of life akin to our own."
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.
