Following up his last week’s denunciation of the Committee for a Jewish Army for calling the Bermuda Conference a “cruel mockery” of Jews in Nazi Europe, Senator Scott Lucas, who represented the United States at the Bermuda parley, today named Peter Bergson, national director of the Committee for a Jewish Army, as one of a group of alien Palestinians who frame full-page newspaper advertisements criticizing the American Government.
Speaking from the Senate floor, Senator Lucas said that he had not known of Bergson’s lack of citizenship last week when he attacked the Committee for a Jewish Army for its full-page advertisement in the New York Times. He declared that he particularly resented such criticism by aliens here on “temporary sufferance” and knew that other senators would feel the same way.
Three more senators, whose name appeared among 33 in the advertisement, rose to announce that they had not seen it before it appeared. Four others had made similar statements last Thursday.
Sen. William Langer, North Dakota Republican, who spoke today, said he thought the committee could have been more circumspect in using Senators’ names, but pointed out that they were not appended to the text of the advertisement, only to a statement they had all signed calling for action to aid the Jews of Europe. Langer said he would not pass judgment on the work of the Bermuda Conference before its records became available, but expressed doubt whether they would be made public soon enough to be of great use. He reiterated his belief in his belief in the necessity for concrete action on the refugee problem, including the facilitation of entry into Palestine and the creation of a Jewish Army.
Senatirs Burnet R. Maybank, South Carolina Democrat, and Jame S J. Davis, Pennsylvania Republican, expressed their confidence in Lucas and his Work at Bermuda, and their ignorance of the advertisement. Davis said he has permitted the use of his name to further the cause of a Jewish Army, but that its use on what he called the committee’s “unjust and untimely” advertisement was unauthorized.
Sen. Albert B. Chandler, Kentuoky Democrat who previously repudiated the use of his name, told Lucas that some of the harshest criticism of the American Government came from aliens here, and that he would be glad to furnish additional names when the Illinois Senator wanted to pursue the subject further.
Those who last week made clear their look of connection with the advertisement included Senators Edwin C. Johnson, whose name appears in it as chairman of the Committee for a Jewish Army, E.H. Moore, New Jersey Republioan, and Alexander Wiley, Wisoonsin Republican. Francis Maloney, Connecticut Demoorat, told the Senate he had spoken with Rep. Sol Bloom, New York Democrat who also attended the conference, and heard him praise Lucas’ work at Bermuda.
Bergson said he would have no statement to make until he had a chance to read Lucas’ speech.
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