Jewish War Veterans Charge U.S. Tobacco Firm with Boycotting Israel

The British-American Tobacco Company and its American subsidiary, the Brown Williamson Tobacco Company, were accused here today at the 63rd annual convention of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S. of yielding to Arab pressure to boycott the State of Israel.

In a “White Paper” submitted to the convention, the foreign affairs committee of the Jewish veterans organization emphasized that the British American Tobacco Company remains one of the few major corporations in international trade which has admittedly changed its trade policies as a result of Arab pressures to boycott Israel.

In describing the JWV investigation of the policies of the British-American Tobacco Company, the White Paper said that the company “attempted to create a smoke screen to conceal its motives in cutting off trade for Israel. Such cowardice and deceit in international trade should be exposed and every effort should be made to prevent their companies from appeasing those Arab nations which seek to permeate their medieval trade practices throughout the world. While many firms and governments throughout the world have resisted Arab approaches to boycott lsrael and knuckle under to the Arab intimidations and threats, some companies, among them the British-American Tobacco Company, have capitulated to such pressures.”

The White Paper offered the following conclusions after a two-year investigation of the operations of the British-American Tobacco Company and its American subsidiaries: 1. Open admission that British-American was yielding to Arab pressure should be made public knowledge. 2. Efforts by Brown and Williamson to relieve itself of responsibility for its refusal to ship cigarettes to Israel should be denounced as an attempt to deceive the American people. Brown and Williamson, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British-American should not be permitted to weasel out of its responsibility for cooperating with the immoral Arab boycott, the White Paper stated.

(High officials of the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, when contacted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the company’s headquarters in Louisville, Ky., said they had no comment on the charges of the Jewish War Veterans.)