Two leading Australian Communists declared today that their party had not acted quickly enough in condemning Soviet harassment of Russian Jewry, and expressed concern that such problems were still unresolved.
Bernard Taft and Rex Mortimer, both members of the party’s central committee, also said that the issue was “being considered within the framework of the Australian Communist Party” but declined to make a formal statement to the press “at this stage” on the party’s plans.
Mr. Mortimer, editor of the Communist weekly, “Guardian,” of Melbourne, who has just returned from the Soviet Union, expressed satisfaction that Lord Bertrand Russell, the British Philosopher, had listed the Australian party as one of the Communist groups which publicly criticized anti-Semitic literature in the Soviet Union. He then expressed “regret that the Australian Communist Party on the surface was not more active in taking initiatives on this question.” Speaking in his capacity as co-editor of the Marxist quarterly journal, “Arena,” Mr. Mortimer intimated he was willing to accept a comprehensive article on the discriminations against Jews in the Soviet Union.
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.
