Peace Treaties with Enemy Countries Do Not Provide Enforcement of Equal Rights

The draft of the peace treaties with Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania and Italy, which are to be discussed at the Peace Conference opening in Paris on Monday, contain several provisions calling for observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, but do not contain any provisions for enforcement, Dr. Max Gottschalk, director of the Foreign Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee, said today on the basis of information obtained from authoritative quarters in London and Paris.

Dr. Gottschalk, who has just returned to the United States after an extended tour of Europe, told a press conference that it is necessary that all groups interested in the establishment of the principle of equality press for enforcement provisions in the treaties with former enemy countries.

“Another basic task,” Dr. Gottschalk stated, “is to accelerate the restitution to Jews of property looted by the Nazis. While most countries have adopted restitution laws,” he said, “actual return of property proceeds very slowly, due to unsatisfactory provisions for enforcement of these laws. In Germany, Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis is part of the assets blocked by the Allies. Its release depends on decisions as yet not made by the military governments.”

In order to create some basis for the future existence of the Jewish communities in Europe and to decrease the pressure for emigration to overseas countries, including Palestine, it is imperative that human rights guarantees and restitution of property should be speedily insured, Dr. Gottsohalk emphasized.

Another major factor affecting European Jews, he reported, is the question of assets in neutral and allied countries belonging to many of the six million Jews massacred by the Nazis, who left no heirs.