J.w.v. Tells Truman It Can Raise Division of Volunteers for Palestine if Necessary

Over 4,000 members of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States marched on Washington today in a demonstration of protest against British policies in Palestine and a delegation from their group, calling at the White House, told President Truman that if Britain insisted on U.S. military aid in Palestine they would recruit for him “a full division” of Jewish volunteers for service in the Holy Land.

The parade, climaxing a two-day demonstration which began with a mass protest meeting last night, included veterans from New York, New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania. Almost a mile long, the parade wound up Constitution Avenue to the Washington Monument grounds where ceremonies in honor of Jewish war dead were led by Lt. Col. William Berman, executive director of the JWV, and Chaplain Edward T. Sandrow of Cedarhurst, New York.

The delegation at the White House told the President that they were “absolutely certain” that Britain’s demand for American troops was “a colossal bluff, designed to frighten and mislead the American people.” They said they were convinced that no American troops and that no large concentration of British troops were needed to keep order in Palestine.

They pointed to testimony of British military experts before the Anglo-American inquiry committee to the effect that the Jews of Palestine were well able to defend themselves against Arab attacks and suggested that Britain was seeking to destroy “the ability of the Jews of Palestine to defend themselves.

“We are resolved to call Britain’s bluff,” they said. “If you should at any time feel that it is desirable to send American troops to Palestine in order to facilitate the entry of 100,000 Jews into that country, we will undertake the recruiting of a full division of Jewish volunteers for service in the Holy Land.”

President Truman was very cordial and receptive, a spokesman for the delegation said after their half-hour meeting.

WARNS INVERCHAPEL BRITISH POLICY ALIENATING FRIENDS IN AMERICA

Calling at the British Embassy, another delegation submitted a statement to British Ambassador Lord Inverchapel warning “that Great Britain has lost–and will continue to lose–the friendship of Americans, who will not remain silent while all the principles for which we fought the greatest of all wars are scrapped by a government which represents itself as progressive and liberal.

“As long as Britain continues a policy which brings death and humiliation to the Jews of Europe, and oppression to the heroic Jews of Palestine, we shall fight her with every weapon at our command,” the statement declared.

Others of the group who called on Under-Secretary of State Dean Acheson charged the State Department with adopting “the tactics of delay and evasion initiated by the British Government” by its failure to implement United States policy as enunciated by President Truman, calling for the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine “without further consultation.”

Expressing their conviction that “some officials of the State Department” had acted “in direct opposition” to American policy as stated by every President since Woodrow Wilson, they called upon Acheson “to take all necessary steps to insure that the Division of Near Eastern and African Affairs shall hereafter implement, and not scuttle, President Truman’s request for action to save the Jewish remnants in Europe.”