United States Government Asked at New York Mass Meeting to Protest Against Anti-jewish Boycott Movem

The United States Government was asked to intervene with the Polish Government against the anti-Jewish outbreaks and the anti-Jewish boycott movement in Poland at a mass meeting attended by several thousand people held to-day at the Carnegie Hall, convoked by the American Jewish Congress.

The speakers, who included Rabbi Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Dr. George Battle, a famous non-Jewish American lawyer, and Mr. A. Henry Takinson, General Secretary of the American Commission on National Minority Rights, all emphasised that public opinion in Poland must be enlightened to understand that it must take action against the Jew-baiters in order to save Poland’s own prestige. Mr. Battle, an outstanding personage in American life, openly demanded America’s intervention. Dr. Stephen S. Wise contended that the excesses harm Poland more than the Jews.

A similar request to the United States Government to intervene against anti-Jewish excesses was made several years ago at the time of the anti-Jewish outbreaks in Roumania in 1927, when a resolution to this affect was adopted at a mass meeting attended by about 3,500 people held at the Hotel Astor in New York under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress. Among the speakers in addition to Rabbi Wise, Judge Mack, Mr. Max Kohler, and other Jewish representatives, were Rev. Arthur J. Brown, Chairman of the American Committee on the Rights of Religious Minorities, Mr. George R. Lunn, Public Service Commissioner of New York, and Rev. Edward Lawrence Funt, Director of America’s Goodwill Union.

“We urge our Government”, the resolution adopted by the meeting read in part, “to heed the instructions given by President Grant to the United States Consul to Roumania, Pixotto, as far back as 1870 with respect to our Government’s insistence that such infractions of law, justice and order stop, in the course of which he said ‘respect for human rights is the first duty of those set as rulers over nations, and the humbler, poorer and more abject and miserable a people be, black or white, Jew or Christian, greater should be the concern of those in authority to extend protection to rescue and redeem them. The United States, knowing no distinction between her own citizens on account of religion or nationality, believes in a civilisation the world over which will secure the same universal views’. We urge our State Department to take such action compatible with diplomatic dignity as will impress upon the Roumanian Government the desires of the American people for the just and humane treatment of all minority groups in Roumania, whether of Jewish or of Christian faith, and for the preservation of such a spirit of tolerance and conciliation as will promote friendly relations between Roumania and all enlightened peoples”.

The United States Secretary of State at the time, Mr. Frank Kellogg, received a delegation representing the American Jewish Congress headed by Dr. Stephen S. Wise a few days after the meeting and declared that he was deeply impressed with the gravity of the charges regarding the persecution of the Jews and requested the delegation to submit full data.

Several months after, in April 1928, one of the Jewish Congressmen, Mr. Emanuel Celler, raised the question in Congress in connection with a proposed loan to the Roumanian Government. Mr. Kellogg, in his reply to Congressman Celler’s resolution commented on the representations which had been made to the State Department that the United States Government should intervene with other Governments concerning the protection of minorities. The United States Government, he declared, had never attempted to dictate to another Government its policy towards minorities. The advocates of such intervention are inconsistent, he added, since they are often objecting to the United States protecting her own citizens and interests in foreign countries.

A few days later, however, a statement was issued in Washington, which it was understood emanated from quarters close to the Secretary of State, that Mr. Kellogg had not intended to convey the impression that the United States Government was not concerned about the ill-treatment of Jews or other minorities in countries abroad, but had only meant to bring out the point that the United States cannot take any official step to intervene on behalf of inhabitants of any foreign country who are not American citizens.

The position which he took up, it was stated, was that the Hay Note of 1902 to Roumania and the abrogation of the Russian Treaty of 1911 involved the right of Jewish American citizens to freedom of movement and the transaction of business in these countries, but not the treatment of other Jews by these Governments. The United States, it was pointed out, is prevented from interfering in purely domestic affairs of other countries by international law, which governs the relations between nations.

JOINT FOREIGN COMMITTEE’S EFFORT TO ENLIST GOOD OFFICES OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT.

In connection with the same anti-Jewish outbreaks of 1927 in Roumania, the Jewish Board of Deputies in London adopted a resolution at its meeting held on April 10th., 1927, empowering the Joint Foreign Committee to enlist on behalf of the ill-treated Jews of Roumania the good offices of the British Government and the League of Nations.

The resolution which was moved from the chair by the President, Mr. O. E. d’Avigdor Goldsmid, read as follows:

That in view of the facts regarding the situation in Roumania recited in the Report of the Joint Foreign Committee, this Board, representing the Jewish Congregations and other representative organs of the Jews of the British Empire, express their sympathy with their Roumanian co-religionists in the barbarous attacks on their persons, property and honour, of which they have lately been the victims; and protest most solemnly against the failure of the Roumanian Government to afford its loyal Jewish population the protection and equal rights and the impartial dispensation of justice, to which all Roumanian citizens are entitled by the provisions of the Roumanian Constitution and the obligations of the Roumanian State as embodied in International Treaties.

That the Joint Foreign Committee be empowered to take such steps as they may deem advisable to bring the sufferings of the Roumanian Jews to the notice of the League of Nations, and to enlist the good offices of His Majesty’s Government in calling the attention of the Council of the League to the infractions by Roumania of the Minorities Treaty of December 9th., 1919, as provided for by Article 12 of that instrument.

Under the circumstances, Mr. d’Avigdor Goldsmid said, steps must be taken to bring the facts to the notice of the British public, and he would therefore propose that copies of the resolution with explanatory literature be passed on to the Prime Minister, to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and other members of the Cabinet, to leaders of the Parties and to the members of both Houses of Parliament as well as to the Secretary General of the League of Nations and to the Press.