A substantial program of aid to half a million needy Polish Jews in Russia has been started by the Joint Distribution Committee, it was announced today by Joseph C. Hyman, Executive Vice-Chairman of the J.D.C.
Organization of this relief work is well under way, Mr. Hyman said, and preparations are being made to send a first shipment of clothing, medicine and other urgently needed supplies. The J.D.C. program has been undertaken in collaboration with the Polish Government-in-exile. The Polish authorities are organizing a major relief program on a non-sectarian basis for Polish nationals in Russian, comprising a million five hundred thousand non-Jews as well as half a million Polish Jews there. The Council of Polish Organizations in the United States and other organizations are likewise contributing to this program.
The J.D.C. has made available an initial allocation of $50,000 out of a first appropriation of $100,000 for Polish relief in Russia, Mr. Hyman said. Jan Ciechanowsky, the Polish Ambassador in Washington, has written to Edward M. M. Warburg, Chairman of the J.D.C., confirming the arrangement and stating that a first shipment of 600 tons of clothing is about to be sent to Russia on a Soviet ship. Further purchases of concentrated foodstuffs and medical supplies are now being negotiated.
J.D.C. appropriations, together with the funds raised by a number of Polish-American organizations and the contributions of the Polish Government, will be used for the purchase of the supplies in the United States and elsewhere in non-Axis countries, Mr. Hyman said. In accordance with an understanding between the Polish and Russian Governments, the shipments will be sent on Russian or Russian-chartered vessels without freight charge and duty free, consigned to the Polish Embassy in Kuibyshev. Distribution of the supplies in Russia will be supervised by local committees of Polish citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish. Ambassador Ciechanowaky has furnished the J.D.C. with a list of Polish Jews who have been named to these committees. Among them are some who are well known to the J.D.C. because they collaborated with it in relief and reconstruction work in Poland for many years.
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