World Relief Conference Organizes Two Control Bodies to Handle Refugee Question

A comprehensive program of action for the relief of the Jews of Germany was adopted here today in the closing sessions of the world conference for the relief of German Jews. The conference opened Sunday at Woburn House and continued in private sessions until today.

A central allocations committee to which “the committee in each country shall be free to hand over all or part of their resuorces” and which will advise organizations in the various countries how best to direct their expenditures was decided upon by the conference.

This is a modification of the plan originally proposed by D’Avigdor Goldsmid, chairman of the central allocations committee of the Central British Relief Fund, which called for a common pooling of funds and resources, the expenditure of which would be according to allocations determined by the committee. The conference voted against common pooling of funds. The allocations body therefore, will act merely in the capacity of adviser to local committees but will be able to coordinate the distribution of funds raised and plan in advance where the money may be applied to the best advantage.

No announcement was made as to the amount to be raised for German relief, but it is reliably learned that an appeal for two million pounds (approximately $10,000,000) will be made.

What proportion of this fund will be allocated for purposes of settling Jews in Palestine has not been definitely settled. The central allocations committee will probably be authorized to decide this point. The proportion to be devoted to settlement of German Jews in Palestine, however, is expected to be in the neighborhood of fifty percent.

The conference also adopted, in a modified form, the proposal of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, noted Zionist leader and head of the Zionist drive for German refugee relief, for a political bureau. As determined by the conference, the bureau, to be known as the “liason office”, will aim at coordinating the various organizations dealing with German problems. The office will have purely advisory duties but the hope is expressed that every organization concerned will cooperate with this office to the fullest extent.

While not entirely satisfactory to many of those interested in seeing a political bureau established, creation of the liason office was felt to be the best compromise under the circumstances.

The liason office will also act in relations with the League of Nations High Commissioner for German refugees. The proposal to have three Jewish representatives appointed to the governing body set up by the League has failed, but since many delegates at the conference feel that a larger Jewish representation on the body is justified since the Jewish people will be asked to raise a large part of the funds for refugee work, it was agreed to approach the League secretariat with a view to having eight Jews named to the body. They would represent the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the Joint Foreign Committee, the Jewish Colonization Association, the Alliance Israelite Universelle, the Committee of Jewish Delegations and the Jews of Poland.

Norman Bentwich, former Attorney General of Palestine, and Dr. Nahum Goldman, Zionist leader, are proceeding to Geneva where they will take up this question with League officials.

An organization similar to that of the World Zionist Organization, with a central executive body and a general advisory council will be formed as a result of the conference.

The executive committee will consist of six persons representing the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the Joint Foreign Committee, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Committee of Jewish Delegations.

The advisory council will consist of one representative of each of the 45 organizations represented at the conference.

Both the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress opposed the granting of political powers to the central bureau originally proposed at the conference, although their objections were motivated by different reasons. The American Jewish Committee opposed creation of a central political body while the American Jewish Congress wanted a more effective organization for political work.

Forty-five organizations and nearly every country of Europe and the United States were represented by the hundred delegates at the conference which was characterized as one of the most important Jewish assemblies in many years.