Silver, Wise Ask Truman for Action to Fulfill Spirit of Palestine Statement

President Truman has been urged by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver and Dr, Stephen S. Wise, joint chairmen of the American Zionist Emergency Council, to use his influence and authority in seeing that effective measures are taken immediately to carry out the spirit of his recent statement requesting Jewish immigration into Palestine.

In a joint statement, the Zionist leaders called on the United States to “exert sustained and vigorous effort to secure swift favorable action to the end that heartening promises shall be realized in deeds.”

While expressing appreciation of the President’s announcement, the statement stressed that “public expressions, however sincere and well-meaning, do not suffice.” Dr. Silver and Dr. Wise declared, “Nothing can satisfy the public conscience save the early movement of displaced and homeless Jews into Palestine, the prompt cessation of British assaults on Jewish refugees and a halt to the brutal repression practiced in Palestine.”

Noting that the President’s statement “should strengthen the hands of all men of good will striving to achieve justice for the most martyred people on earth,” the statement points out, however, that the 13-month period since his first request to Britain for Jewish immigration into Palestine was “marked by failure to advance one step in the desired direction, all action being frustrated by a series of evasive and dilatory tactics devised by the British Government, to which unfortunately our government was repeatedly induced to give assent.”

Stressing that none of the 100,000 refugees, whose entry into Palestine Mr. Truman requested more than a year ago, have gained admittance, the Zionist leaders claimed that “there has been a failure on the international diplomatic plane” to carry out policies repeatedly voiced by the Presidents and the U.S. Congress, leaving the U.S. open to charges that statements favorable to Jewish DP’s and a Jewish National Home “were not seriously meant.”