U.S. Zionist Leaders Charge Bevin with Anti-semitism at Huge Protest Demonstration

British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin was charged here tonight with “having repeatedly given evidence of a virulent anti-Jewish bias,” and was bitterly attacked for his statement on Palestine made earlier today at the annual convention of the British Labor Party, in which he said that the people of America insist on the admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine “because they do not want too many of them in New York.”

The attacks were voiced at a huge demonstration at Madison Square Garden called to protest British delay on the recommendation of the Anglo-American inquiry committee that 100,000 displaced Jews be admitted immediately to Palestine. Speakers at the rally included Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Judge Morris Rothenberg, Henry Monsky, Bartley C. Crum, member of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, and others.

Terming Bevin’s statement a “cheap slur on the American people and a coarse bit of anti-Semitic vulgarity reminiscent of the Nazis at their worst,” Dr. Silver said:

“In view of this shocking record of broken pledges and the repeated violation of solemn obligations, American citizens have the right to turn to their representatives in the Congress of the United States, who are now discussing the granting of a loan to Great Britain, and inquire whether the Government of the United States can afford to make a loan to a government whose pledged word seems to be worthless. They should also inquire whether American money, including that of the Jewish citizens of the United States who have given such superb evidence of their loyalty and patriotism during the war and whose sacrifices helped to save a collapsing British Empire, should be used to back up a government whose Foreign Minister has repeatedly given evidence of a virulent anti-Jewish bias.

“We question very much whether Mr. Bevin represents the conscience and the spirit of the British people but it is up to them to repudiate this maligner and cheap Vulgarian, and to demand that someone who more truly represents them should occupy such an important post.”

JEWS ARE NOT TROUBLED BY “OFFENSIVE VALGARITY” OF BEVIN’S REMARK, SAYS WISE

Rabbi Wise, ridiculing Bevin’s assertion that he will need another division of British troops in Palestine if 100,000 Jews are transferred there, pointed out that there is today more than enough British troops in Palestine and that they are not there in relation to the Jewish National Home or in relation to the affairs of the people of Palestine.

“We American Jews–and indeed all American people–have the right to resent and to fling back the gratuitously and vulgarly insulting remark of Mr. Bevin that the agitation in the United States for the admission of a hundred thousand Jews into Palestine is because Americans do not want too many of them in New York,” Rabbi Wise said. “I am not troubled by the offensive vulgarity of this remark. I am troubled because it indicates that, even though President Truman appointed the whole Cabinet, with himself included, as a commission to deal with Palestine, there will be no hope of fulfilling the unanimous recommendation of the Anglo-American committee unless President Truman speaks sharply and acts decisively in relation to the British Government.

“I say to you tonight–I, who am a lifelong affectionate admirer of the English people–that, unless the British Government grants the hundred thousand certificates of admission to Palestine to displaced Jews, no promise of England is to be trusted. We have no reason to believe that any pledge of Britain will be kept. If there be resentment because of what I say, let that resentment express itself in the profoundest contempt of the speech and the conduct of the deeds of the Labor Government in England,” Dr. Wise declared.

ARREST OF EX-MUFTI DEMANDED; BRITAIN CHARGED WITH HELPING HIS “ESCAPE”

Henry Monsky, speaking for the American Jewish Conference, said that the failure of the British Government to fulfill the recommendation of the Anglo-American inquiry committee to admit 100,000 Jews into Palestine “seems to be calculated to completely nullify the effect of the report of the inquiry committee.” Scoring the mysterious escape of the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, he stated: “This latest episode in what appears to be a planned active campaign to block the implementation of the recommendations of the inquiry committee is part and parcel of the unholy conspiracy to defeat the purposes of justice for the Jewish people.”

Bartley C. Crum, presenting his views as a member of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, charged that the ex-Mufti was paid in gold by the Nazis for his activities and that “he is now using funds given to him by Hitler to carry on Hitler’s work where Hitler left off.” He urged that the United States Government demand the immediate arrest of the ex-Mufti and his trial as a war criminal.

Mrs. Moses P. Epstein, president of Hadassah, said that “the present tactics on Palestine of the British Colonial Office, which are opposed to every rule of humanity, will be fought tirelessly until justice has been done. We shall expose the maneuvers of those who would betray the long-suffering Jewish people to the scorn and indignation of civilized mankind.”