The official announcement by the Palestine Government that it is halting all further Jewish immigration into Palestine was termed a “contemptuous disregard of the agreements between the Governments of the United States and Great Britain prior to the appointment of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry,” in a telegram sent today by Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York to Secretary of State Byrnes.
This “callous disregard,” Sen. Wagner pointed out, is in line “with the world wide propaganda now being so insidiously employed by the British to prejudice the rights to development of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, even before the Joint Committee begins its inquiry. The recent ridiculous outburst of a British UNRRA official against the helpless refugees trying to escape from Poland is a case in point.”
Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, today appealed to the British Government “to continue the immigration of Jews to Palestine in accordance with statements by Prime Minister Attlee and Foreign Secretary Bevin of Nov. 13, 1945, and example set by the United States Government in recent Presidential directive.”
The appeal was voiced in a telegram to Lord Halifax, British ambassador to the United States, and a copy sent to Secretary of State Byrnes. “The difficult task of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry should be undertaken under the most favorable auspices,” the telegram said. “A new restrictive policy is likely to hamper the commission’s effectiveness by generating an atmosphere of hostility and discord. We appeal to the conscience of your countrymen who have shown unique courage and human sympathy in these many trying years.”
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.
