Allies Bar Polish Relief Until Nazis Allow U.S. Supervision

The Allied blockade control henceforth will not permit American relief supplies to go to Poland unless the German Government furnishes “proper guarantees” that distribution will be supervised by Americans, it was learned today from a British Embassy official.

(Authorized quarters in London told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Britain and France were insisting on external supervision by an authorized neutral agency to ensure that relief supplies would not be diverted for the use of the Nazis.)

The new regulation affects both the Commission for Polish Relief, Inc., and the American Red Cross, it was said.

(The Commission for Polish Relief stated in New York: “Until the principle of American supervision is accepted by the German Government, the British and Allied Governments have informed us that they will not permit one pound of supplies to go through the blockade to Poland.”)

The Red Cross announced that eight shipments of supplies for impartial relief in Poland have been released by the British blockade authorities, but the British Embassy said these cargos must have been passed through the blockade before the new ruling was adopted.

The Embassy also insisted that the present arrangement between the Red Cross and the German Government did not contain sufficient guarantees that the supplies would reach only needy Poles and Jews to warrant the Allies’ passing Red Cross goods through the blockade.

The Embassy said that the Red Cross had no supervisor in Poland at present. The Red Cross said that James T. Nicholson, now in Berlin, would be allowed to go to Cracow, in Nazi-occupied Poland, when the eight shipments reached there from Genoa, Italy.

Under the present arrangement with the Germans, the Red Cross is allowed to send one representative to Poland for a “visit,” but is not permitted to keep a man permanently stationed at Cracow.