James J. Wadsworth, deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations, has asked the State Department to carefully study the possibility of action at the forthcoming General Assembly session on the issue of Soviet persecution of Jews. This was made known today by Rep. Kenneth B. Keating, New York Republican, who released the text of a letter from Mr. Wedsworth.
The letter indicated the United States may respond to Rep. Keating’s request for UN action on Soviet repression of Jews. A subsequent communication, received late today by Rep. Keating from Henry Cabot Lodge, head of the U.S. delegation at the United Nations, shared concern over the plight of Russian Jewry and assured the Congressman of Mr. Lodge’s “wholehearted support.”
Mr. Lodge said that he found Rep. Keating’s letter on his return to his UN office. He therefore wrote a letter supplementary to the one released earlier today from Mr. Wads worth. “Rest assured,” Ambassador Lodge wrote, “that I completely share your revulsion and anger at the maltreatment of Jews in the Soviet Union and have tried in the past to leave no stone unturned to call attention to what has happened. What you are doing in keeping world public opinion focused on this problem can be of the greatest value. You are certainly on the right track and you can count on my wholehearted support.”
Rep. Keating expressed gratification at this development. He voiced hope that the State Department would “see its way clear to push for a sustained and powerful investigation and indictment of the Soviets for their base treachery” in mistreating the Jews and other minorities.
On August 23, Rep. Keating wrote Ambassador Lodge that the American delegation “might well bring” the problem of Soviet anti-Semitism to the attention of the world and seek some means of solution. Describing official Soviet policy, Rep. Keating told Mr. Lodge: “This organized anti-Semitic drive, reminiscent of Hitlerian tactics, threatens to wipe all semblance of Jewish culture from the map of the Soviet Union.”
Mr. Wadsworth, answering for Ambassador Lodge, recalled that on a number of occasions in the past the United States brought the attention of the UN to Soviet persecution of minorities, including Jews. He said the American delegation remains anxious “to do everything we can through the United Nations to seek some way to deal with the problem.”
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