Jewish Congress Warns of Reich Debt Defaults in Answer to Steuben Group

A statistical analysis of American-German relations refuting the conclusions drawn by the Steuben Society that the boycott against German goods is injuring American investors, was issued yesterday by the American Jewish Congress. The Steuben Society statement had been attacked Wednesday by the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights.

“The contention by the National Council of the Steuben Society of America, betrays a lack of familiarity with the true state of affairs, particularly in regard to American investments in the Reich,” the statement signed by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Bernard S. Deutsch, declares.

“A careful analysis of the status of German obligations forces the conclusion that the payment of interest and amortization on German bonds to American investors, individuals as well as institutions, cannot be expected to be resumed as long as the present form of government continues,” the Congress statement declares.

The statement also insists that the American investors are withdrawing from Germany because the Reich has not kept its promises to American bondholders. This latter fact, bringing about “the inability of Germany to secure financial accommodations,” rather than the boycott, is likely to “deprive Germany of the possibility of continuing to purchase American goods, in particular raw materials,” says the statement.

The Steuben Society protest against the boycott, which was sent to Secretary of State Cordell Hull and President Roosevelt, declared that “the movement to exclude German goods from importation into the United States as a protest against the persecution of minorities by the present German government is economically unsound in view of America’s huge stake in Germany.”

“We, the Steuben Society of America,” the statement goes on, “therefore denounce the boycott as detrimental to the interests of the American people and we moreover are of the opinion that such policy toward Germany is the most inappropriate method to achieve the aims allegedly pursued by its propagators. The Jews of Germany, in whose interest the boycott is proclaimed, have repeatedly and in unmistakable terms appealed to the outside world to desist from actions against Germany which in their further effect might tend to inflame already highly wrought feelings. We declare it to be our firm conviction that a stabilization of political and social conditions and a return to normalcy in Germany will be expedited in the same degree as the threatened application of pressure and intervention ceases to be voiced against Germany by official or unofficial spokesmen of public groups in other countries.”