President John F. Kennedy today told a press conference he was aware that his controversial nominee as a director of the United States Export-Import Bank, Charles M. Meriwether, of Alabama, managed a 1950 political campaign for retired Admiral John Crommelin, a racist extremist. Mr. Kennedy indicated he decided to send the nomination to Congress after investigating Mr. Meriwether’s background.
Senator Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, announced meanwhile that he will interrogate Mr. Meriwether tomorrow when the nominee appears before a hearing conducted by the Senate Banking and Currency Committee. Senator Javits is a member of the Committee.
Admiral Crommelin, an advocate of “states’ rights” and “white supremacy, ” charged that the fight against segregation was led by “Felix Frankfurter, a Jew, and Senator Herbert Lehman, a Marxist Jew. Don’t you know it’s their kind of people who are behind this whole mess?”
The controversy over the appointment of Mr. Meriwether centered on the issue of racism and whether such views, if professed, would embarrass the foreign policy objectives of the United States. The Export-Import Bank, a Federal agency, deals not only with Israel but with many African and other nations.
Senator Javits said he studied Mr. Meriwether’s record. “I feel it my duty to inquire objectively into the allegations and shall do so at the hearing, ” he stated. “The country is entitled to an explanation from Mr. Meriwether. The committee hearing will be followed by a vote on the nomination.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
