Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the United Jewish War Effort, today announced that the Jewish Trade Union Committee which was conducting a campaign for funds to purchase 1,000 tanks and 500 bombers as a Jewish gift to the Russian Army has decided to abandon this campaign and will join the United Jewish War Effort in a drive for 1,000 medical field units for the Soviet forces. Funds collected by the union committee will be transferred to the now campaign.
At the same time the Ambijan Committee for Emergency Aid to the USSR, a Jewish organization, today launched a campaign “to present to the Russian people and to the Red Army a substantial quantity of pocket and wrist-watches which are needed badly by soldiers and officers of the Russian Army as well as by nurses and doctors of the Russian hospitals.” The campaign will be conducted under the slogan “Watches Are as Important for an Army as Rifles.”
The Soviet Consul-General, Victor A. Fediushine, in a statement made public today, approved the campaign proclaimed by the Ambijan Committee declaring that his office will take all necessary steps to insure immediate shipment of the watches to Russia. “Knowing as I do the very urgent need for just such watches, at this time, I have no hesitation in stating that this gift will be greatly appreciated by the government and people of the USSR. In fact, I have no doubt that it will be a real contribution to our common war effort and to the victory of the United Nations,” the statement said.
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