Lord Marley, deputy speaker of the House of Lords, arrived in this country on the Berengaria to take part in the campaign for funds of the People’s Ort Federation.
Lord Marley, who is chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Council of the Ort in Great Britain, hopes to raise $100,000 for the organization to be used to purchase machinery, principally textile.
Lord Marley has recently visited Russia in the interests of the Ort and in an interview with a representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency described his impressions of Jewish conditions in the Soviet Union and the work of the Ort.
He expressed a belief that the work of the Ort is of benefit to the non-Jewish as well as to the Jewish population in Soviet Russia.
Lord Marley dealt with his impressions during the two visits to Russia which he made during April and later from August to September of last year. He had visited many Jewish collectives and factories and was in a position to talk of the great value of the Ort’s work in providing training and machinery to enable the Jewish declassed to take their place as productive workers in Russia.
Asked what was the present extent of declassification among the Russian Jews, he gave the approximate figure of three or four hundred thousand, adding that it would take from ten to fifteen years to liquidate this large class and fit them for work in the factories and fields.
Lord Marley, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Council of the Ort in Britain, stressed the importance of that Council, which was in a position to explain the Ort’s work to British legislators and to gain sympathy for it. The Council was composed both of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Replying to a question as to whether the machinery and equipment which the Ort provided for the Jewish colonies and cooperatives was secured to them, he said that all such property remained the inalienable possession of the Ort, which carried on the business of these factories, and in many cases made considerable profit, which went to the extension of the work and the purchase of further machinery. On the question of the effect of the Bira Bidjan project on the colonization of Jews in European Russia, he said that he had not come across any particular interest in the Bira Bidjan project, but he had found that the Jews in the Crimea, for instance, were progressing favorably and proving capable farmers.
With regard to the work of the Ort in Poland, Lord Marley was asked whether they found any difficulty in finding employment for the Jews trained in the Ort’s technical schools. He agreed that that difficulty existed, but emphasized that the Parliamentary Advisory Council was a useful vehicle for getting the Polish authorities to appreciate the keen interest taken by British parliamentarians in the treatment of Polish Jews.
Lord Marley also referred to the fact that the Ort’s work benefits many non-Jews in Russia, as in a number of cases non-Jews formed as much as 20% of the personnel of the factories equipped and run by the Ort. He claimed that this was a useful factor in improving relations between the Jews and their neighbors.
He hoped to raise a sum of about $100,000 during his visit to the United States and Canada. The money thus collected would be spent on machinery, mainly textile, in the United States as well as in other countries.
B. C. Vladeck, chairman of the Peoples’ Ort Federation, who presided at the press conference, announced that a reception was to be held next Sunday evening at the Hotel Commodore in honor of Lord Marley.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
