Jewish Groups Participate in Interfaith Effort to Aid Starving Biafrans

A plane carrying 40 tons of food and machines, dispatched from New York Sunday by the Catholic Relief Services, Protestant Church World Service and the American Jewish Emergency Effort for Biafran Relief, was to arrive at the island of San Tome today. The supplies will be flown into Biafra on the nighttime air-shuttles operated by Joint Church Aid, a composite group of Catholic and Protestant relief agencies. The Jewish group represents 21 major national Jewish organizations. It paid the $40,000 cost of the charter flight. It previously contributed $38,000 to Catholic emergency programs for Biafra and sponsored a series of newspaper ads throughout the country.

Abie Nathan, the Israeli “peace flyer,” is coordinating the dispatch of a Norwegian freighter from New York carrying 3,000 tons of food and medical supplies to relieve starvation in Biafra. The dispatch of the ship is a combined operation of groups in Holland, England, Canada and the United States. About 1,000 tons of food from Israel, Holland, Sweden and Israel will be loaded aboard in Amsterdam. The ship will leave there on Dec. 19 for New York and will sail from New York for San Tome in January. Shuttle flights from that island will convey the cargo to Biafra. Total cost of the project, which is sponsored here by the Biafra Relief Services Foundation, is estimated at $460,000.