Unrra Denies Report That Lehman Cancelled Trip to Poland Because of Anti-jewish Riots

The allegation that Herbert H. Lehman, director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, cancelled his projected visit to Poland because of the anti-Jewish riots in Cracow, is made today in the Polish newspaper Dziennik Polski, published in Cracow.

As a result of this report, the central trade union body in Cracow addressed a message to Mr. Lehman emphasizing that “Cracow workers have already punished the criminals” and urging him to come to Poland as soon as possible.

(In Washington, an UNRRA spokesman termed the report in the Cracow paper baseless. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Mr. Lehman did not intend to go to Poland at this time because he must remain in the United States while Congress is in the process of considering funds for UNRRA. “Mr. Lehman would be doing Poland and every other nation needing UNRRA aid a disservies to leave at this time,” he declared.

(Mr. Lehman had originally intended going to Poland after the end of the UNRRA Council meeting in August, the spokesman stated. When he announced his intention to the Polish members of the UNRRA late in July, Lehman assumed that the Council meeting would be over late in August. He did not know that V-J Day was in the offing, nor that Congress would be called back into session, and that one of the first questions it would consider would be funds for UNRRA. As soon as this became apparent, he notified the Polish delegation of UNRRA that he would not be able to go to Poland. He also notified UNRRA in Paris and the UNRRA management of the camps for displaced persons in Germany of his inability to make his contemplated inspection tour.)