The Conference of Presidents of 17 major American Jewish Organizations issued today a statement of facts on the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation which has been involved in a controversy over American firms that have yielded to the Arab boycott. The statement was issued after a meeting between representatives of the Conference and representatives of the British American Tobacco Co. Ltd., and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation.
At the suggestion of the spokesmen for these companies, the representatives of the 17 major Jewish organizations reviewed the facts regarding the refusal of their corporations to sell certain of their brands to Israel. The facts, the statement says, are as follows:
“1. Brown & Williamson is a wholly-owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco and manufactures and sells in this country Viceroy, Kools, Raleigh and other brands of cigarettes.
“2. British American Tobacco owns the right to sell outside the United States of America cigarettes bearing the brand names of Lucky Strike and Pall Mall. These two brands are manufactured for it by Brown & Williamson.
“3. The American Tobacco Company which manufactures and sells Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes in the United States has no connection with either Brown & Williamson or British American Tobacco and is in no way involved in the Arab boycott program.
“4. British American Tobacco admits that it has refused and still refuses to sell its Lucky Strike and Pall Mall brands to Israel. Brown & Williamson has publicly admitted that the boycott was imposed because of pressures from Arab countries and that they yielded because of fears that capital investments and markets in those countries would otherwise be jeopardized.
“5. Brown & Williamson, wholly-owned by British American Tobacco, is inextricably associated with the decisions of its parent company and therefore shares responsibility for the boycott.
“6. Brown & Williamson asserts that it is not anti-Jewish or in any way motivated by anti-Jewish feeling; we have never so charged or so believed and that is not the issue here. The sole issue is the participation by these two companies in the Arab boycott.
“The Arab boycott of Americans is international intimidation; it thrives on appeasement and capitulation. We are confident that Americans deplore the Arab boycott and will want to resist this impairment of the rights and privileges of American citizenship,” the statement of the Jewish organizations concluded.
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