To request that the United States government take formal steps to protect American holders of German bonds and to prevent the extension of further credits to Nazi Germany, five hundred people gathered in a mass demonstration last night at the Casa d’Amor, Coney Island. The meeting was called by the Boycott Committee and the Women’s Association of the American Jewish Congress.
The intention of the government, as already expressed, to grant new loans to Nazi Germany came in for expressions of unmistakable disapproval both from the speakers and the crowd. Recent notes issued to the German government by the United States State Department indicating that this country would not tolerate further default on payments due American investors were hailed by the crowd.
Speakers called upon the government to enforce the terms of the Johnson law to annul new credits which may be extended to Germany through the Import and Export Bank. The Johnson law provides that any nation defaulting on its obligations to the United States is barred from further loans. It further provides for the punishment of individuals and institutions loaning money to the defaulting nations.
Speakers gave specific mention to the Nazi threat against the peace of the world. Dr. Samuel Margoshes, one of the speakers and vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, declared in part, “The bloody purge in Germany of June 30 and recent developments in Austria should have convinced the world at large, which is still hesitant concerning the barbarism of Nazi Germany, as to the true character of the Hitler regime and its menace to civilization and world peace.
Congressman Andrew L. Somers, chairman of the House Coinage Committee, called upon “the American investor, the man of average means, the man in the street to compel decisive action on the part of this country and the government itself, in relation to Germany.”
Other speakers at the meeting were Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, chairman of the Boycott Committee; Nathan D. Perlman, a vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, and Mrs. Charles H. Turow, acting president of the Brooklyn Division of the Women’s Association. Perlman presided.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
