With the suggestion before them of an economic boycott of Poland, similar to that against Nazi Germany, if persecution of Polish Jews continues, 1,000 delegates to the 29th annual convention of the Federation of Polish Jews in America today considered plans for raising $1,000,000 for relief.
The boycott threat was voiced at the convention’s opening session last night in the Hotel Aster by Samuel Untermyer, leader of the anti-Nazi boycott, who said this weapon could be readily turned against Poland if necessary.
Mr. Untermyer demanded that the United States Government press for enforcement of minorities protection clauses in the Polish independence treaty of 1919. If Poland continues to violate the treaty, he said, this government should "sever all diplomatic and trade relations with Poland."
Mr. Untermyer urged the federation to combine its Polish relief activities with those of the Joint Distribution Committee, offering to act as intermediary to compose the differences between the two organizations. "There should be no competition in such a field," he said.
Drastic action by the United States against Poland for its oppression of the Jews would have ample legal precedent in this country’s history, Supreme Court Justice William T. Collins, of New York, declared at the federation’s annual banquet tonight. Justice Collins cited the action of President Theodore Roosevelt who, in 1903, cabled a protest to Russia over the Kishineff massacres, and the United States protest in 1911 against persecution of Russian Jews.
The Jews, he said, are victims of those who would "Nazi-ise Poland."
The convention’s opening session was turned into a protest meeting, with former Supreme Court Justice Jeremiah T. Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, Mr. Untermyer, and other speakers, calling on all civilized nations to express their indignation.
The delegates adopted a declaration denouncing the pogroms "which have afflicted the lives of 3,500,000 Jews" in Poland, appealed to the governments which signed the minorities treaty to enforce it, and called upon American Jewry for unified action to relieve distress.
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