Upa Conference Urges Truman to Provide U.S. Aid to Transport 100,000 Jews to Palestine

Emphasizing that the homeless Jewish survivors of Europe are now in the grip of unparalleled despair, more than, 2,000 delegates attending the twentieth anniversary conference of the United Palestine Appeal at the Hotel Commodore today voted to submit a three-joint program to President Truman urging his continued support for the immediate immigration of 100,000 Jews into Palestine and calling upon the Chief Executive to help provide land, sea and air trasportation to speed their entry.

The resolution embedying the program also requested that President “take the initiative in the creation of an international agency which would be empowered to recover the property expropriated from Europe’s Jews or left behind by the millions who were massacred and to use such funds exclusively for the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of the surviving, Jews of Europe.”

The conference also adopted a resolution pledging all-out support of every measure taken by the Jews of Palestine to resist the attempts of the British Government to carry out by force the cessation of immigration as provided in the White Paper and “to save great masses of Jews from the devastation and desolation of Europe by bringing them into the Jewish homeland in the largest possible numbers.”

Declaring that President Truman’s request to Prime Minister Attlee that British provide for the immigration into Palestine of 100,000 Jews from war-torn Europe at the earliest possible date is “intended to meet the immediate problem of saving human beings,” Senator William J. Fulbright of Arkansas asserted that it was “the most pressing problem of the moment” and expressed the hope that immediate action would be taken by the British Government.

Senator Fulbright denounced the White Paper as a part of the discredited policies of the Chamberlain Government that should be “disavowed as a matter of course.” He said that he could see no reason at the present time for further delay in the rescue of all those homeless Jews who desire to enter Palestine, and “who, in the name of decency and humanity should no longer be subjected to the unspeakable suffering they so long have endured.”

Addressing the afternoon session of the conference, he said that now that the war was over, Britain no longer had any cause to be concerned over the attitude of the brabs. If, however, the British are afraid that they might become involved in controversies beyond their power to control, Senator Fulbright suggested that the British give up the mandate to the United Nations Organization to administer under the Trusteeship Council as provided in the United Nations Charter. He added, however, that the plight of the Jews of Europe was so desperate and the need for immediate action was so urgent that it would be “inexcusable to wait until the United Nations Organization is completely organized before provisions are made for the immigration of these Jews.”

TELLER ANNOUNCES UIA BUDGET TOTALLING $52,000,000

Describing the greatly increased requirements of the agencies of the United Palestine Appeal in making possible the immigration, settlement and absorption in Palestine of large masses of Jews, Dr. James G. Heller, national chairman, announced that a total of $51,759,405 would be required in the coming year. Of this amount, $26,325,000 will be needed by the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the Keren Hayesod, while the budget of the Jewish National Fund calls for expenditures aggregating $25,434,405. Dr. Heller said that in the year ending September 30, 1945 approximately $31,690,000 had been spent by the agencies represented in the United Palestine Appeal.

Dorothy Thompson charged Ibn Saud with an attempt to blackmail the United States on the question of Palestine. Commenting on the exchange of correspondence between President Roosevelt and the Arab leader which was made public several days age, Miss Thompson emphasized that the British and American Governments endorsed the establishment of a Jewish National Home with the clearly expressed intention that it be ultimately set up as a Jewish State. She also stressed the fact that formal agreements were made with the Arabs through Emir Feisal, who gave his official approval of the program for the reconstruction of the ancient Jewish homeland.

Miss Thompson said that while President Roosevelt’s reply to Ibn Saud was noncommital, the Arabs would attempt to exploit it to serve their purpose in thworting future Jewish development in Palestine. “President Roosevelt said that no decision would be taken in respect to the basic situation in Palestine without full consultation with Arabs and Jews. I hope he meant Palestinian Arabs and not any Arab chief who might arise in any other country,” she declared. Miss Thompson, who recently visited Palestine, described the many economic, social and health benefits which the Arabs have derived from the Jewish rebuilding program.

WISE SAYS ROOSEVELT’S COMMONWEALTH PLEDGE REMAINS POLICY OF U.S.

Dr. Stephen S. Wise, who presided at the dinner session of the conference, declared, “Against a chance letter of President Roosevelt to Ibn Saud, we pit the repeated declarations of pre-Zionist policy made by the American Government beginning with Wilson and including Roosevelt and Truman. President Roosevelt expressed Government policy, as he told me he wished to do, in his letter addressed to Senator Wagner, October, 1944. Until repealed, this remains the policy of our Government.” In the letter to Senator Wagner, President Roosevelt pledged his support for the establishment of a free and democratic Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine.

In a message sent to the conference, President Truman congratulated the kited Palestine Appeal on its achievements in the reconstruction of Jewish Palestine during the past twenty years and expressed the hope that the UPA would continue to devote its energies and influence to the relief of human suffering and to the restoration of hope in the hearts of those who have known desclation and despair.”