Returned to Geneva after a tour of the United States and South America, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the World Jewish Congress administrative committee, today expressed surprise at the recent attack made on the Congress by Tadeusz Bielecki, vice-chairman of the Polish National Council, at a meeting of the Council in Angers, France.
Dr. Bielecki, a leader of the anti-Semitic National Democratic Party, had taken particular exception to a speech made by Dr. Goldmann before the convention of the American Jewish Congress in Washington on Feb. 10. Dr. Goldmann had spoken of limited sovereignty of states after the war to guarantee protection of minorities, which Dr. Bielecki interpreted as a reference to Poland.
Dr. Goldmann emphasized today that neither he nor Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, had referred to Poland. He recalled that their speeches had stressed the need of an international organization which would limit the sovereignty of all states by international law. “Otherwise there will never be a definite peace or collective security,” he explained.
“This idea is not a Jewish one, but has been recognized by Premier Reynaud (of France) and British statesmen. I do not think it is wise for a Polish statesman to oppose, in the name of Poland, the construction of a new Europe in which the sovereignty of states would be limited.”
The Rev. M.L. Perlsweig, head of the British section of the Congress, also arrived here after his American tour and departed for London.
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