The United States Embassy in Moscow has been asked by the State Department to investigate the question of matzoh supplies there, Sen. Kenneth Keating of New York disclosed on the Senate floor today. He expressed the hope that this new probe by U.S. officials “will spotlight the problem” and “contribute substantially toward prompt easing of harsh and arbitrary restrictions.”
The Senator revealed that in reply to a recent letter from him, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick Dutton wrote that the embassy in Moscow was asked “to ascertain present Soviet policy in this question.”
“This move, I hope, will mark the and of the hands-off policy that our Government has been following for too long where Soviet religious discriminations is concerned,” Sen, Keating said. “I sincerely hope that our representatives in Moscow will take a long, hard look at the problem and report not only to the confines of the Department of State but also to the whole world, what crass disregard of religion and spiritual purpose takes place in the Soviet Union with the full backing of the Soviet Government.”
On the House floor today Democratic Congressman Leonard Farbstein of New York called for the “immediate adoption” of a resolution he presented before Congress a month ago “to make evident our abhorence of the discrimination practiced by the Soviets on some of its minority people.” He referred to the matzoh situation in the Soviet Union.
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