Harold F. Linder, vice-president of the Joint Distribution Committee, was sworn in here yesterday as president and chairman of the board of directors of the United States Export-Import Bank. He was appointed by President Kennedy to this post to replace Samuel C. Waugh, of Nebraska, who served during the previous Administration.
A. U. S. Naval commander during World War II, Mr. Linder, shortly before the end of the war, went to London to serve as a volunteer representative of the Joint Distribution Committee with the Reparations Commission and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. Mr. Linder served in 1952, under appointment by President Truman, as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
The new appointment was unanimously confirmed by the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate, Mr. Linder was this weekend welcomed by Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon to his new position in ceremonies at Bank headquarters.
Senator Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, who took a leading role in the Senate Banking Committee controversy over the appointment of Charles Meriwether, Alabama racist, as a director of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, said today he would wage a vigorous fight on the Senate floor against final confirmation.
Mr. Meriwether told the Senate Banking Committee, under cross-examination, he saw no reason why he should not accept the support of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama politics. He also admitted working with Rear Admiral Crommelin, retired, who sought a Senate seat and is notorious for prejudice against Jews and Negroes.
Senator Javits said today that despite Mr. Meriwether’s victory by a five to four vote in the Senate Banking Committee, he did not feel Mr. Meriwether qualified “for a high policy-making position” affecting “so many millions of peoples whose skins are yellow, black, or brown. ” Senator Javits also cited the anti-Semitic implications of the Ku Klux Klan and Mr. Meriwether’s association in a 1958 campaign with Grand Dragon Robert Shelton of the Ku Klux Klan.
Senate Democratic leader Mike Mansfield announced today he would do his “best” to obtain Senate confirmation for Charles Meriwether, Alabama racist, as a director of the Export-Import Bank because “He is the President’s nominee.”
State Department sources meanwhile revealed foreign service reports today that at least one African nation made known it would regard Mr. Meriwether as “persona non grata” and refuse him a visa even if on official business as a director of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The report said an individual who admitted accepting Ku Klux Klan political cooperation and still advocated segregation would be “unwelcome. “
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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.
