The Board of Deputies of British Jews criticized today the action of the Norwich Union Insurance Societies in yielding to Arab boycott pressures in the resignation from its board of Lord Mancroft, a leading Jewish businessman.
The insurance firm admitted in a statement last night that pressure from “Arab interests” had caused the resignation of Lord Mancroft from its London advisory board. At the same time the company said in the statement that “racial discrimination has never been practiced” “and is not practiced today,” by the company.
In its statement, the insurance company said that “Arab interests recently informed the Norwich Union that in view of the association of a member of their London advisory board with certain other business interests, Norwich Union policies would no longer be accepted in Arab countries.” Lord Mancroft is a director of Great Universal Stores of which Sir Isaac Wolfson, a substantial contributor to Israeli causes, is chairman, Lord Mancroft also is chairman of Global Tours, a travel agency affiliated with the Wolfson store chain. Both the parent firm and the affiliate have business ties in Israel.
The company statement said that the “Arab pressures” would have “seriously prejudiced” the capacity of the company to provide insurance for goods and people in transit “to people of all races” and that this was made known to Lord Mancroft, “who recognized that there was a conflict of interests and offered his resignation. This was reluctantly accepted by the Norwich Union directors, with whom both individually and as a board, he remains on the most friendly terms.”
The Board of Deputies made its criticism in a letter to Sir Charles Bignold, the company’s president. The letter expressed “surprise and incredulity” over the circumstances of the Jewish baron’s resignation and warned that the admitted reasons for the resignation could make “any enterprise or company with which he is connected a target for threats of boycott by the Arab states. Similar instances show clearly that to be a Jew is sufficient to bring on this kind of coercion.”
The Board statement added that “discrimination in trade has been condemned by the United Nations, including Britain, which has deplored such obstacles to good international relations and understanding.”
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