Zionist Leaders Confer with Halifax and Welles on Jewish Problems

The immediate and post-war problems affecting the Jews of Europe and Palestine were the subject of conferences just held between American Zionist leaders and important circles in Washington, it was learned today from reliable sources. Among those who received the Zionist leaders were Sumner Welles, Acting Secretary of State, and Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to America.

The conference with Lord Halifax took place before news of the Strume tragedy became known but the plight of the Jewish refugees was laid before the Ambassador in a memorandum which indicated the steps necessary for their relief. The Jewish leaders who submitted the memorandum and described at length the sufferings of Jewish refugees fleeing from Rumanian pogroms and Nazi persecutions, were Judge Louis E. Levinthal, President of the Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Israel Goldstein, President of the Jewish National Fund in America; and Mr. Emanuel Neumann, political adviser of the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs.

After the publication of news of the Strume disaster, Mr. Neumann together with Dr. Nahum Goldmann, member of the World Zionist Executive, were received by Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles and reported to Mr. Welles the shattering effect which the tragedy has had on the Jews of America. Mr. Neumann and Dr. Goldmann also discussed with Mr. Welles the project for a Palestine Jewish fighting force. Considerable attention was given by the conferees to the general situation in the Near East and to the post-war aims of the United Nations that affect the future of the Jews of Europe and Palestine.