Ajcongress Urges Congress to Bar Air Carriers from Countries That Discriminate

The American Jewish Congress called on the U.S. Congress today for legislation that would prohibit the awarding of landing rights to air “carriers of any country which discriminate on racial or religious grounds.” The appeal was contained in a telegram to Rep. Charles Diggs (D., Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee on Africa of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, from Dr. Joachim Prinz, chairman of the AJCongress commission on international affairs. Dr. Prinz protested against the Civil Aeronautic Board’s decision granting permission to South African Airways to inaugurate direct flights between South Africa and the United States.

“Our government has repeatedly expressed its revulsion against apartheid and the racial practices of the South African Government,” Dr. Prinz’s message said. It would therefore appear to be self-evidently against public policy to grant an economic reward to an airline which is an agency of the South African Government and thereby inescapably implicated in official policies of racial discrimination and persecution.”