The Allied Governments have informed the American Commission for Polish Relief that “they will not permit one pound of supplies to go through the blockade to Poland” until “the principle of American supervision (of relief distribution) is accepted by the German Government,” the commission announced today.
The commission reported that “there has been no progress on the fundamental point of securing resident American representation in occupied-Poland for the relief which we are so anxious to bring to the population in the war-stricken area.”
“With the exception of the city of Cracow,” a statement by the commission said, “neither our representatives nor those of any other American relief organization have been permitted to go into occupied-Poland for the past three months. And so far the Government has given no assurance that Americans connected with our neutral relief undertaking would be welcome in occupied-Poland. Our donors quite naturally demand that in the distribution of supplies purchased with their funds they be represented by Americans at work in the field.”
Previous statements have pointed out that without American supervision it would be impossible to guarantee distribution of relief on a non-sectarian basis because of the Nazi policy of barring Jews from relief. The American Friends’ Service Committee, through whose field workers the commission operates, has refused to distribute relief until it is satisfied that there will be no discrimination.
The commission said its program for Poland “foresees the furnishing of supplies on a scale of $2,000,000 per month, such action to be supported jointly by private charity and the grants of government. We are set up to bring immediate aid to this distressing picture and it is to be hoped that those who can facilitate our action will soon give their consent.”
The commission has so far been limiting its activities to relief among refugees from Poland in Lithuania, Rumania and Hungary. The statement reviewed developments in Poland during the past four months, pointing out that one-third of the city of Warsaw had been destroyed, that Poland was experiencing the worst winter in 50 years, that millions were unemployed and without means of livelihood and that “hundreds of thousands of the population of former Poland are being moved from one territory to another, in the process of which they lose all basis for sustenance and existence.”
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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.
