U.S. Official Presents Arab Anti-jewish Speech at Washington Parley

An inflammatory attack on American Jewry, prepared by Iraqi Minister Abdullah Ibrihim Bakr, was presented by a State Department official yesterday before a conference for corporation executives that continued in session today at the Statler Hotel.

The official who read Bakr’s remarks was Edwin M. Wright, officer in charge of Turkish Affairs of the Department of State. Mr. Wright was formerly chief intelligence adviser of the Near Eastern Division of the Department and has a long record of anti-Israel utterances. The conference is sponsored by the Foreign Service Educational Foundation, in cooperation with the School for Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.

Although the subject of the conference is “Developments in the Middle East,” no Israel or Zionist representative was invited despite the fact that a number of Arabs and pro-Arab personages were listed on the program. Mr. Wright, who was chairman of the session at which he read Bakr’s anti-Jewish address, did so because the Iraqi could not appear in person. The remarks questioned the loyalty of American Jewry and alleged that Jews are unreliable citizens throughout the world.

Discussion leaders at the conference included Norman Burns, director of the Foreign Service Institute, Department of State; Stephen P. Dorsey, Acting Deputy Director, Office of Near Eastern Affairs, Department of State; James Terry Duce, vice-president, Arabian-American Oil Company; Farid Hanania, professor of the University of Petrut; Harold B. Hoskins, president, board of trustees, Beirut University; Cedric H. Seager, chief, Iran Division, Technical Cooperation Administration, Department of State; Mr. Wright; and Samuel K.C. Kopper, consultant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Representatives of the U.S. Steel Company, the Chase National Bank, and similar firms were in attendance.