American Zionist Leaders Oppose Consultations Delaying Transfer of 100,000 Jews

A declaration suggesting to the Jewish Agency and the American Zionist Emergency Council “the advisability of refusing to become involved in procedures which will spell further unconscionable delay in carrying out the most urgent recommendation to rescue 100,000 Jews,” was issued here today by 400 Zionist Leaders from all parts of the country attending a special conference convened by the Zionist Emergency Council to discuss the report of the Anglo-American inquiry committee.

Expressing pleasure at that part of the statement issued yesterday by the State Department assuring that the President’s position on the immediate transfer of 100,000 Jews to Palestine “is now the fixed policy of our Government,” the declaration said that the State Department “is nevertheless continuing in practice a procedure of ‘consultations,’ which may delay indefinitely the attainment of the immediate objective to which our Government is already fully committed.”

The declaration further said that “the Zionist movement cannot be involved in activity which can only increase the agony of the helpless Jewish survivors in Europe.” It called on President Truman “to stand firm” on the position he took April 30, stating his pleasure at the unanimous endorsement by the Anglo-American inquiry committee of his request for admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine and asking for their earliest transfer.

“We call upon the President to direct the departments of our Government to move with the greatest despatch in the implementing of what is now the accepted policy of the United States,” the declaration urged.

CHARGE STATE DEPT. WITH DELAYING ACTION ON MOVING JEWISH DP’S TO PALESTINE

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, joint chairman of the Zionist Emergency Council and president of the Zionist Organization of America, and Emanuel Neuman, vice-president of the ZOA, reviewed recent developments concerning Palestine and reported they indicated that a forceful program of public pressure is being organized to insist on dropping of the consultations and on early action by the State Department to carry out American policy regarding the immigration of the 100,000.

Delegations of Zionist leaders called this afternoon on their Congressmen and Senators, to express the urgency of the views voiced in the declaration. Copies of the declaration will be sent to American officials concerned with the question of Palestine.

“The Zionists of America, representing the overwhelming sentiment of American Jewry, are outraged by the announcements that the immediate admission of 100,000 homeless European Jews into Palestine is to be delayed while another time-consuming series of consultations is launched by the British Government and our own Depart- ment of State,” the declaration points out. “In the meantime, these 100,000 harassed men, women and children–a fraction of the European Jews who must emigrate to Palestine or be doomed–are consigned to further misery and mental torture.”

Emphasizing that President Truman, in his statement of April 30, clearly distinguished between the Anglo-American committee’s recommendations for action upon the immediate objectives of the report, and the recommendations for long-range policies, the declaration continued: “In view of this forthright declaration of American policy, we were confused by the statements issued by the Department of State, which seemed to indicate a sharp divergence from the President’s position. The State Department seemed to have adopted the delaying tactics of British Prime Minister Attlee with regard to the Anglo-American committee’s recommendation concerning 100,000 displaced Jews.”

The declaration charged Great Britain’s original motives in launching the committee of inquiry lacked sincerity, and said that “when our Department of State becomes an accomplice in Britain’s procrastination, it becomes our solemn obligation to bring these facts to the attention of the American public.”