Anti-boycott Resolutions Presented at Banks’ Shareholders Meetings

Identical resolutions sponsored by the American Jewish Congress which require corporate disclosures of participation in the Arab boycott of firms doing business with Israel or in Arab discrimination against Jews were presented yesterday at the annual shareholders meetings of the Bankers Trust Co. and the Chase Manhattan Corp.

Will Maslow, general counsel of the AJCongress, submitted the resolution at the Bankers Trust meeting on the basis of a proxy given him by an AJCongress member who is a stockholder in that corporation. Phil Baum, the AJCongress’ associate executive director offered the resolution at the meeting of Chase Manhattan shareholders. The AJCongress holds five shares of Chase Manhattan stock.

The resolution was defeated at both share- holders meetings. But it gleaned 300,000 votes among Bankers Trust shareholders, about five percent of the six million shares voted, which automatically qualifies the resolution for inclusion on the agenda of next year’s shareholders meeting, according to an AJCongress spokesman.

RANK AND FILE SUPPORT

He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the organization was “immensely gratified” by the support it received from “rank and file” stockholders in the Bankers Trust voting. He noted that the AJCongress had not solicited proxies because of the great expense involved in writing to all stockholders. It entered the meeting with only 100 shares–the proxies for which were assigned by an AJCongress member–and emerged with 300,000 votes which constitutes a “victory,” the spokesman said.

The results of the Chase Manhattan voting were not immediately available. But an identical resolution presented at the shareholders meeting in Boston yesterday of the E.G. & G. Co., an electronics manufacturer, gained 7.2 percent of the votes, the AJCongress reported.

Maslow and Baum presented statements at the Bankers Trust and Chase Manhattan meetings charging that the respective banks admittedly processed letters of credit from Arab importers which require American exporters to certify that they are in compliance with the boycott.

They pointed out that this was in violation of a Dec. 12, 1975 directive by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System which stipulated that “The participation of a U.S. bank, even passively, in efforts by foreign nationals to effect boycotts against other foreign countries friendly to the United States–particularly where such boycott efforts may cause discrimination against United States citizens or businesses–is, in the Board’s view, a misuse of the privileges and benefits conferred upon banking institutions.”