Determined to maintain the American protest movement until all danger of a threatened British sell-out of Zionism vanishes, the Emergency Committee on Palestine announced at a press conference today plans to launch a campaign for one million signatures to a mammoth telegram urging President Roosevelt to make a public statement stressing the moral and humanitarian issues involved in the Palestine problem and requesting Great Britain to abide by its promises to the Jews. It was said there was reason to believe the President would respond to such an appeal.
The campaign will be started in conjunction with the nationwide mass meetings, which begin next sunday and will continue until Balfour Day, Nov. 2, at which American Jewry’s concern over threats to the Jewish National home will be voiced. Every signature obtained will be appended to the telegram, the signatories paying five cents, the average wiring cost per name from all parts of the country to Washington.
Speakers at the conference pointed out that the protest movement was divided into three phases. the first consisted of the effort to obtain representations from the State Department on the legalistic issues involved, which was culminated by Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s statement promising protection of American interests in the event of any change in Palestine’s political status. The second will be the appeal to President Roosevelt, and the third will be a demarche directly to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Speakers at the conference, held at the Hotel Brevoort, included Rabbi Solomon Goldman, Z.O.A. president, Morris Margulies, Louis Lipsky and William Z. Spiegelman, who outlined the petition plan.
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.
