U.S. Asked to Intercede with Poland; Hull Voices Sympathy

FRIENDLY INTERCESSION BY THE UNITED STATES WITH POLAND ON BEHALF OF THAT COUNTRY’S JEWISH POPULATION WAS ASKED IN A MEMORANDUM PRESENTED TODAY TO SECRETARY OF STATE CORDELL HULL BY A DELEGATION FROM THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS HEADED BY DR. STEPHEN S. WISE.

THE MEMORANDUM ASKED THE UNITED STATES TO ACT ON THE GROUND THAT THIS GOVERNMENT WAS CHIEFLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF POLAND AS AN INDEPENDENT NATION AFTER THE WORLD WAR.

SECRETARY HULL WAS SAID BY THE DELEGATION TO HAVE EXPRESSED HIS DEEP SYMPATHY WITH THE PLIGHT OF POLISH JEWRY AND TO HAVE PROMISED TO MAKE THE BEST POSSIBLE USE OF THE DATA SUPPLIED IN THE MEMORANDUM. HE REVEALED AN INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH POLISH JEWRY LIVES.

CONGRESSMAN ELLENBOGEN OF PITTSBURGH, A MEMBER OF THE DELEGATION, INFORMED THE SECRETARY OF STATE THAT THE OVERWHELMING OPINION IN CONGRESS TODAY IS IN FAVOR OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT INTERCESSION IN BEHALF OF PERSECUTED POLISH JEWRY.

AT THE SAME TIME, THE DELEGATION MADE PUBLIC A STATEMENT SIGNED BY 146 CHRISTIAN LEADERS, EDUCATION, LAY AND RELIGIOUS, IN TWENTY-EIGHT STATES, DENOUNCING OPPRESSION OF POLISH JEWS AND ASKING THE DEMOCRATIC FORCES IN THAT LAND TO UNITE AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM.

THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS MEMORANDUM RECITED THE DIFFICULTIES OF POLAND’S 3,150,000 JEWS, INCLUDING POGROMS, PASSAGE OF LAWS DISCRIMINATING AGAINST THEM, AND EXCLUSION OF JEWISH YOUTH FROM THE PROFESSIONS. IT CHARGED THAT THE POLISH GOVERNMENT DID NOTHING TO PREVENT “VICIOUS ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENTS.”

THE STATEMENT BY CHRISTIAN LEADERS EXPRESSED CONVICTION THAT “THE POLICIES PURSUED BY THE PRESENT AUTHORITIES IN POLAND WILL NOT ONLY SPELL THE DOOM OF THE JEWS BUT WILL DESTROY THE PLACE OF POLAND IN THE CIRCLE OF CIVILIZED NATIONS.” IT PLEADED WITH THE POLISH GOVERNMENT TO “SEE THE WISDOM OF REMAINING LOYAL TO THE STANDARDS OF DEMOCRACY IN REDEMPTION OF ITS PLEDGE TO END OPPRESSION.”