Truman Says U.S. Will Help Move Jews to Palestine; Hopes Jewish Leaders Will Be Released

President Truman today told American members of the Jewish Agency who called on him at the White House that the United States Government was ready to assume financial and technical responsibilities for the transfer to Palestine of 100,000 European Jews.

At the same time, Mr. Truman expressed the hope that the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine who have been arrested by the British would be released and voiced his regrets at the developments there. He said that this government had not been consulted on the measures taken by the British.

The text of the announcement issued by the White House following the meeting with Dr. Abba H. Silver, Stephen S. Wise, Nahum Goldmann and Mr. Louis Lipsky read as follows:

The President conferred today with the following American members of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, Mr. Louis Lipsky and Rabbi Abba H. Silver. The representatives of the Jewish Agency gave the President their views of recent events in Palestine.

The President expressed his regrets at the developments in Palestine. He informed the representatives of the Jewish Agency that the Government of the United States had not been consulted on the measures prior to their adoption by the British Government. He expressed the hope that the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine would soon be released and that the situation would soon return to normal.

The President added further that it was his determination that the most recent events should mean no delay in pushing forward with a policy of transferring 100,000 Jewish immigrants to Palestine with all dispatch, in accordance with the statement he made upon the receipt of the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. The President indicated that the Government of the United States was prepared to assume technical and financial responsibility for the transportation of the immigrants from Europe to Palestine.

He expressed his thanks for the workman-like suggestions embodied in the letter which the American members of the Jewish Agency executive sent him on June 14 with respect to the technical and financial problems involved in the transfer and resettlement of the 100,000 immigrants.

AGENCY MEMBERS ASKED PRESIDENT TO INTERVENE IN PRESENT SITUATION

After leaving the White House, where they spent a half-hour with the President, the Agency members issued a statement which read, in part, as follows:

“As the American members of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, some of whose members have been arrested in Palestine, we called upon the President of the United States to express our deep sorrow and indignation. We deplored the unwar- ranted attack upon the entire Jewish population of Palestine and its leaders. We expressed our amazement at the fact that while negotiations were being conducted by the representatives of the American and British Governments to implement the unanimous recommendation of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine to transfer immediately 100,000 Jews to Palestine, these acts of brutal aggression were perpetrated by the British Government.

“We appealed to the President to intervene in this situation of utmost gravity which is disrupting the life of the entire country and which may destroy generations of labor and achievement of the Jewish pioneers and builders in Palestine.

“The President expressed his great anxiety about recent events in Palestine which occurred without his knowledge or consent. He reiterated his earnest hope that the 100,000 displaced Jews in Europe, in whose behalf he intervened nearly a year ago, would be admitted without further delay and without waiting for decisions on long range policy concerning Palestine.”