Strike-bound British Subscribers Come to JTA London Office for Daily Bulletin

Snow, rain, heat, gloom of night and salary demands may have stayed Britain’s postal couriers from the completion swift or otherwise, of their appointed rounds, but copies of the British edition of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Daily News Bulletin are getting to subscribers even if they have to pick them up themselves. The employees’ strike–a first for Britain–is now in its third week, and JTA readers continue to send messengers to the JTA offices to secure their copies, “which is very flattering indeed,” notes bureau chief Sam J. Goldsmith. The subscribers include Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, institutions, embassies and individuals. “The Egyptian Embassy is sending us a charming lady to pick up our Bulletin, which is very handsome of them,” Goldsmith reports. Some subscribers have asked the JTA to hold their copies for them until the strike ends, so that their flies need not be incomplete. Two students who were hired to deliver copies resigned the next day, refusing to continue even at higher pay because they were “utterly exhausted.” The “only real hardship” reported by Goldsmith is non-delivery here of the American and French editions of the JTA Bulletin and the dailies from Israel and the diaspora. But there is consolation in the sight of researchers relying on Bulletins of past days, weeks and years available at the British Museum, the Institute of Jewish Affairs and other institutions. The Jewish Observer and the Jewish Vanguard halted publication in the second week of the walkout.