Reception Held for Bienstock, JTA London Chief

Conviction that the courage of the British people would see them through to victory in the war, given adequate aid from the United States, was voiced by Victor M. Bienstock, who recently arrived here on vacation from his post in London as head of the European service of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Overseas News Agency speaking at a reception for him yesterday at the Hotel Biltmore.

Bienstock said British morale remained high, despite the intensity of the Blitzkrieg. He stressed that the British were looking to the United States for aid and declared that, next to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt was regarded as the greatest leader of the British people.

Fascist anti-Semitic propaganda has virtually disappeared, he said, but some anti-Semitism has arisen as a result of the problems of evacuating London’s population to the hinterlands and providing shelters for those remaining in the city.

Discussing the refugee question in England, Bienstock said most of the English people regarded the policy of indiscriminate internment of aliens with shame and anger. He paid tribute to the Manchester Guardian for leading the fight against this policy and securing modification of the Government’s attitude.

Jacob Blaustein, president of the ONA, who presided, stressed the necessity of providing accurate news, as disseminated by the JTA and ONA, as a guide to intelligent thinking in the United States. Another speaker was Mendel Moses, former head of the JTA bureau in Warsaw, who has just arrived in New York.

Among those present were Baron Robert de Rothschild, Herbert Bayard Swope, George Backer, Harold K. Guinzburg, Dr. Frank Kingdon, Dr. Wm. Jay Schieffelin, Morris D. Waldman, Dr. Bernhard Kahn, Edward A. Norman, Czech Consul Vladimir Hudec, Mrs. Rose Jacobs, Mrs. Judith Epstein, Mrs. David de Sola Pool, Dr. Harry Lurie, Max Gottschalk and Miss Julliet Benjamin.