We Appreciate Assurances Which Have Come Through Polish Government Officials and Intentions of Polis

We appreciate the assurances which have come through the Polish Government officials and the intentions of the Polish Government to give fair treatment to the Jewish population, which is naturally intensely interested in the further development of Poland. Whatever the Government decides to do must be satisfactory to us and we are watching with a great deal of interest, Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of America, has written in a letter to Mr. Sigismond Stoyovsky, Chairman of the Kolo Polskie (Polish Circle) a local Polish cultural group which had invited Mr. Warburg to a gathering held in honour of Dr. Titus Zbyszewski, former Polish Consul-General in Palestine who has now assumed the duties of Polish Consul in Chicago.

It goes without saying, Mr. Warburg’s letter continues, that, with the different Government monopolies established in Poland, the world-wide tendency to drive out the middle man has affected the Jewish population unfavourably and, if we may suggest it, some of us hope that in these Government monopolies, the Jews may receive a fair share of the employment, so that they may be enabled to put their good qualities at the disposal of the Government to the advantage of the country which is theirs. They love it as their country and they surely desire to give it every patriotic support. We would not ask any special favours for the Jewish population, but merely equal opportunities. It is naturally our hope that the “special laws”, harking back to the Russian Czarist times, may soon be abolished, as advised, as I understand, by the Polish Lower House.

I am writing you these lines, Mr. Warburg goes on, in case you want to communicate them to your colleagues, and I wish once more to express to you my appreciation for giving these matters your valuable consideration. I would have done so in person but, uponomy doctor’s orders, I must try to be out-of-doors as much as I can and I expect to spend next week-end away from New York.

It goes without saying, Mr. Warburg further writes, that I am very much gratified that your circle finds it worth while to discuss the relationship between the Polish Government and the Jewish people at one of your gatherings. As Chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, it has been my duty to watch over the conditions of living of the Jewish population in Poland ever since the World War, and I am, of course, acquainted with some of the different phases through which that population has been obliged to pass. When the armies swept to and from our units went to the refugee districts to help with food and medicine to support the sufferers. When, driven by the armies, some of them fled to Austria, we took care of these refugees in large numbers in Vienna and elsewhere. when hospitals and other buildings had to be reconstructed, we provided sanitoria, clinics and medical aid; thousands of orphan children had to be provided for and later given training for various occupations. During the period from 1914 to 1919, the Joint Distribution Committee expended in Poland and its environs over 11½ million dollars, and since 1920 over 12½ million dollars- an aggregate of approximately 24 million dollars. When railroad and post connections were disorganised, we established a transfer system through which over 8½ million dollars were sent by relatives to their friends in Poland for relief.

At all times, Mr. Warburg says, we have tried in every way to co-operate with the Government which, fortunately, has grown stronger and stronger all the time, and we have taken great satisfaction in seeing the industrial developments and improvements as they have taken place. During the period of reconstruction, we established in Poland 528 loan kassas and co-operatives and 609 free loan societies, which assisted a tremendously large number of people with credits which they might not have received otherwise.

I have the privilege of being one of the not numerous Gentiles who have had the opportunity of knowing intimately the two most important Jewish centres in the Old World – Poland and Palestine, Dr. Zbyszewsky said at the meeting. Now I am in the third, perhaps the most important, certainly the largest and the richest. I shall certainly try to maintain in Chicago my friendship with the Jews. But I realise that the task of a Polish official towards the Jews here is very different and perhaps more difficult than the task of a Polish representative in Palestine. There the Jews are weak. They need protection, they need assistance – you want to assist, to help your brethren in Poland. Instead of a policy of protection, of friendly help, a policy of dollarboration, of mutual confidence is needed. I am sure, he concluded, that the day when the aims of the Good-Will Committee will be realised is no longer distant, and that a new ere in Polish-Jewish relations must come soon. I mean by that era not only the absence of friction, not only a satisfactory settlement of the Jewish hopes but a sincere, deep heartfelt friendship and collaboration.