Postmaster General Asked to Determine if USSR Violating Law by Blocking Mall to Jews

Rep. Edward I. Koch, Democrat of New York, has asked Postmaster General Winton M. Blount to determine if the Soviet authorities are in “violation of any convention” in their alleged blocking of mail to Soviet Jews, Koch, referring to information received from the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, said the Soviet government has “evidently not permitted the delivery of thousands of affidavits sent to Soviet Jews by their relatives now living in Israel.” The affidavits are required by the Soviet authorities in the processing of emigration applications. Koch also asked Blount to judge the reported blocking of mail “on a moral basis,” as the United States and the USSR are members of the Universal Postal Union. Blount replied that he would give the matter “careful attention.”