Secretary of State Hull at his press conference today declared that the State Department has not received as yet any detailed facts on the position of the Jews in North Africa, nor did it know to what extent the anti-Jewish laws there have been abolished by the new administration.
Newspapermen would be welcome to the facts when the State Department secures any helpful information, Hull said. He added that the whole situation has been dealt with primarily from the military standpoint, including all phases of conditions that would call for remedial treatment. Just how fast the military authorities were moving, he said, he did not know.
(The New York Times, in a cable from North Africa today, reported that anti-Jewish elements of the Vichy regime are still a strong factor in French Morocco “where the American flag flies near concentration camps.” As an illustration of the situation the report cited the fact that when a man wants to buy a shirt, he first must fill out an application stating whether he is a Jew. If the applicant is Jewish, he is refused the necessary coupon and must wear his old shirt.)
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