A non-stop demonstration by Soviet Jewry activists has been going on here since the arrival yesterday of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Members of the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry have been pursuing Gromyko aboard a green double-decker bus plastered with slogans and names and pictures of Jewish prisoners in the USSR. Inside the bus, hired from the London transport authorities, are members of the so-called “35 Group” dressed as Soviet prisoners.
Another motorized demonstration is being carried out by members of the Betar movement aboard their “Herut-Mobile” in which they travelled to the recent Soviet Jewry conference in Brussels. Meanwhile, members of the newly-formed National Council of Soviet Jewry are mounting vigil outside the Soviet Embassy in Bayswater every afternoon and evening during Gromyko’s three-day visit as guest of Foreign Secretary, James Callaghan and Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
Gromyko and Callaghan are holding a round of talks on bilateral matters, international affairs, the Middle East, South Africa, and a review of events in Europe since last year’s Helsinki conference. According to informed sources, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the Helsinki agreement.
Demonstrators were prominent this morning when Gromyko visited the Tate Art Gallery. Chained to a massive replica of Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev were members of the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry with placards carrying the names of Prisoners of Conscience. They also unfurled a streamer which read: “When will Helsinki reach Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience?”
Although attracting considerable press and radio coverage, the campaign has so far been far less vociferous than that which accompanied a visit by Alexander Shelepin, former head of the Soviet trade unions and of the KGB. The Board of Deputies of British Jews has adopted a low key approach, to avoid offending Gromyko’s hosts who are expected to raise the whole question of human rights in the USSR in the light of the Helsinki agreement.
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.
