The American Federation of Labor, at its convention last night reaffirmed endorsement of the Balfour Declaration and proposed that at the end of the war, Great Britain, in cooperation with the United States and other democratic countries, should implement the declaration “by facilitating further immigration and large scale settlement of Jewish laboring masses in their National Home in Palestine.”
A report of the Committee on International Labor Relations submitted to the convention described the Jewish people as “the greatest of all sufferers at the ruthless hands of the enemies of freedom and democracy.” It declared that “the least the democracies of the world can pledge” was real hope and aid “through a restoration of rights long overdue, rights to a full development in Palestine.” Genuine equality of the Jews among the nations of the world can only be advanced through restoring their national life on the soil of Palestine, the report stated.
The convention also heard a report on immigration stating that the second world war has greatly reduced the flow of immigrants to the United States. Only about half of the prospective immigrants who seek admission to the United States are being granted the necessary permits under new and drastically tightened restrictions on the entry of alines, the report said. Two official advisory committees on immigration, functioning only since mid-July, already have rejected outright 300 applications for visas on the ground the applications were submitted by potential propagandists or fifth-columnists, or by persons inimical to the American form of government. “As a result of the tightened control and because of transportation difficulties, it is predicted that 1941 immigration will be considerably less than in past years,” the report emphasized.
Commenting on the decrease in immigration and on the various anti-immigration bills, the report disclosed that during the first six months of this year only 25,943 immigrants for permanent residence were admitted, against total quotas of 153,774 for the entire year. Immigrants in 1940 totaled 70,756. In 1939, 82,998 were allowed to enter. “Notwithstanding this slump in immigration various bills were introduced to still further restrict immigration. H.R. 3163 prohibits all immigration when there are over one million unemployed in the United States. H.R. 3108 and S.1384 suspend all immigration for five and ten years respectively. None of these bills were reported from Committee,” the report concluded.
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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.
