Senator Taft of the sponsors of the Palestine Resolution, intends to re-introduce the measure in the present session of Congress, it was revealed last night by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, who recently resigned as co-chairman of the Zionist Emergency Council.
Dr. Silver, addressing a press conference, bitterly attacked Dr. Israel Goldstein, Dr. Nahum Golomann and Dr. Stephen S. Wise charging them with sabotaging efforts to secure passage of the resolution by Congress. He denied the charge that he had contravened any decisions of the Zionist Emergency Council and quoted from the minutes of the organization to prove that the Council was not satisfied to have the Palestine Resolutions shelved and that it wanted “persuasive influence to be brought to bear upon the Administration in Washington to change its mind” with regard to its objections to the resolution.
“Dr. Wise strenuously objected to this line of procedure,” Dr. Silver declared. “He did not want the President ‘annoyed’ by our insistance and our persuasion. He reluctantly yielded to the pressure of the Council and thereafter, far from using his energies virgorously to persuade the Secretary of State and the President, he seriously interfered with me in carrying out the clear mandate of the Council.”
Replying to Dr. Goldstein’s criticism of him, Dr. Silver reminded the President of the Zionist Organization of America that on Dec. 5, he, himself, sent a telegram to every member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urging them “to report out favorably the Palestine Resolution for adoption by the present Congress.” Having sent this telegram, Dr. Goldstein appeared in Washington forty-eight hours later to urge the same senators not to pass the resolution, Dr. Silver charged.
SECRETARY OF STATE MISQUOTED ON ROOSEVELT’S SENTIMENTS
Dr. Silver produced a letter which he received from the State Department describing as “not quite in accordance with the record of the Secretary of State” a report submitted by Dr. Nahum Goldmann of a statement made to him and to Dr. Wise by Secretary Stettinius, in which Mr. Stettinius allegedly declared that President Roosevelt was “in a bad mood” because the Zionists were pressing for the passage of the Palestine Resolution, and that the President “felt that the Zionists had lost confidence in him.” The document from the State Department read by Dr. Silver to the press Conference showed that the Secretary of State did not use the words attributed to him by Dr. Goldmann.
The National Administrative Council, ruling body of the Zionist Organization of America between conventions, will meet on Sunday in an all-day session at the Hotel Commodore here to discuss various Zionist problems. The executive committee of the Brooklyn Zionist Region, largest in the United States, adopted a resolution last night deploring the resignation of Dr. Silver from the Zionist Emergency Council, affirming “unshakable confidence in the leadership of Dr. Silver and his policies,” and calling upon the Administrative Council of the 20A to take the necessary steps to call a special ZOA convention for the purpose of dealing with the internal crisis.
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