Christian Parley Here Urges Britain to Cease Obstruction Tactics

Great Britain was called upon to “cease to obstruct” Jewish settlement in Palestine in a resolution adopted today by 250 persons attending the American Christian Conference on the Jewish Problem held at the Hotel Astor under the auspices of the Pro-Palestine Federation of America.

Protesting against persecution of Jews in Germany, Poland and Rumania, the resolution held it “the first business of civilized communities” to remove the victims to Palestine. It asked Britain to fulfill its pledges to the Jews and the world by encouraging Jewish settlement and rescinding “its illegal, unjust and indefensible partition of Palestine,” that is to recombine Transjordan with the Holy Land.

Charles Edward Russell, president of the Federation, charged Britain with responsibility “for every drop of Jewish blood shed” in Palestine on the ground that in placing “the stamp of inferiority, the stamp of dislike” upon the Jews it had encouraged the Arabs to riot.

He urged unrestricted Jewish immigration to Palestine as a solution of the problem of the Jews in Poland and Germany, for he held it useless to appeal to the Christianity and human instincts of these countries.

Other speakers at the luncheon-conference were Carroll Hayes, Bishop Francis J. McConnell, Rev. Ralph W. Sockman, Norman Hapgood, Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, Prof. Franklyn Hudgings, Pierre van Paassen, Rev. Henry Smith Leiper and Rev. Walter M. Howlett.

William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, declared in a message that the A.F.I. “urges and insists” that the treaty between the United States and Britain, justifying the belief that Palestine’s door would be kept open to Jews, be respected. Messages supporting the conference’s purposes were also received from Secretary of Interior Ickes, Senators Austin and King, Governors Lehman of New York, Hoffman of New Jersey, Gross of Connecticut and Nice of Maryland and Bishop Manning.