American Jewish Conference Appeals Against U.N. Amendment Affecting Palestine

The American Jewish Conference today protested to the American delegation at the United Nations against an amendment to the proposed constitution of the International Refugee Organization “which may have the effect of obstructing Jewish resettlement in Palestine with grave consequences to the desperate hope of the remaining Jewish survivors of the Nazi death factories.”

The amendment which was adopted yesterday in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee of the General Assembly, 21-5, provides that the International Refugee Organization “should give due weight, among other factors, to any evidence of genuine apprehension and concern felt” in regard to resettlement plans “by the indigenous population of the non-self-governing country in question.”

“This proposal which is advocated by the Arab states is clearly aimed against resettlement of Jewish displaced persons in Palestine, and if it is written into the constitution of the International Refugee Organization that body’s efforts to resettle Jewish refugees will be stultified by political considerations which have no place in the International Refugee Organization constitution,” Louis Lipsky, chairman of the executive committee of the Conference, declared today.

The Conference disclosed that it had addressed telegrams to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and members of the American delegation expressing concern over the proposal and urging its rejection. However, the American delegation championed the proposal as a compromise and urged its unanimous acceptance by the committee. The American Jewish Conference appealed today to President Truman, Secretary of State Byrnes and Senator Warren Austin to reconsider this country’s stand when the proposal comes before the General Assembly.