Friday, Augusf 20, 1943
Palestine Arms Trial Seen
As Trame-Up' Against Jews
Jewish Agency Cables Protest to British Government
Against 'Slanderous Anti-Jewish Attacks'
by Counsel of Convicted Soldiers
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Jewish Agency for Palestine
cabled to the British government a vigorous protest against
the "slanderous anti-Jewish attacks" made by Maj. Richard
B. Verdin, counsel for the defense in the trial of the two
British soldiers who were sentenced here by a military court
to 15 years for allegedly selling arms to a Jewish organiza-
tion.
The name of the organization was not mentioned, but
there were hints of an alleged connection between it and
the Jewish Agency. Major Verdin, pleading for the two
British soldiers, suggested that persons who are sending
funds to Palestine for Jewish refugee settlement would be
disappointed if they knew that in some cases the money
raised is being spent for depriving the military forces of its
arms, thus harming the cause of the United Nations.
The Jewish Agency, in its protest, described the incident
as a frame-up to defame the Jewish people, discredit the
Jewish war effort, and bring Jewish soldiers into disrepute
in the eyes of their British comrades and of the higher
military authorities. It charged this was part of a systematic
whispering campaign in an attempt to prejudice Anglo-
American public opinion against Jews and the Jewish future
in Palestine.
Asks Measures to End Political Intrigues
The Jewish Agency concludes with an appeal asking
that "His Majesty's government inquire and take the neces-
sary measures to end these political intrigues." The protest
was signed by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive
of the Jewish Agency.
Major Verdin was challenged by Ben-Gurion to sub-
stantiate his anti-Jewish allegations "before any independent
board of enquiry" where representatives of the Jewish
Agency may be able to face him on equal terms.
Doubt Federation Will Be Established
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Informed Arab circles here indicated that
the conferences last week in Cairo between the Egyptian and the
Irakian foreign ministers on the question of the proposed formation
of a federation of Arab countries, including Palestine, have brought
disappointing results.
The prospects for the creation of a political pan-Arab federation
in the near future are not bright, these Arab leaders say. However,
they emphasized that the outlook for cultural—and in some cases
even economic—cooperation between the Arab countries is brighter
as a result of the Cairo conference.
At a conference of leaders of the Jewish Socialist Party in
Palestine at Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion, laborite leader, emphasized
that the political attitude of the Jews in Palestine may be sum-
marized in the slogan: "Help the war as if there were no White
Paper, and fight the White Paper as if there were no war."
Claims Zion Could Hold 5 Million
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—The post-war reconstruction of Pales-
tine as visualized by Jews was partly outlined here this week by
David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agen-
cy, who emphasized that the country will be able to absorb 5,000,-
000 men providing that the American plan for digging a channel
between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea is carried out.
"Tremendous quantities of water sufficient to irrigate hundreds
of thousands of dunams which could support 5,000,000 people would
be made available if the plan of the American engineers were car-
ried out," Ben-Gurion says in a statement published in the Hebrew
newspaper Hazofeh. "In addition, it would create a source of elec-
tric power and would greatly benefit the present population of
Palestine."
In the meantime, Ben-Gurion emphasizes, Palestine can absorb
an additional 200,000 Jewish families on the millions of dunams of
unsettled land. He estimates that there al e 18,000,000 dunams open
for settlement and sufficient water available to irrigate 4,000,000
dunams.
"Zionist planning," Ben-Gurion points out, "aims at a maxi-
mum development of agriculture, industry, commerce and fishing
together with the increased construction of power and transport fa-
cilities, the recruitment of more manpower and the opening of new
markets."
THE JEWISH NEWS
•Page Three
Weekly Review of the News of the World
(Compiled From Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)
AMERICA
PALESTINE
In accordance with an agreement an-
nounced here by the War Manpower Com-
mission and the Fair Employment Practice
Committee, President Roosevelt will be the
final arbiter on government policy for com-
batting racial and religious discrimination
in training and employment.
The proposals for immediate measures
to rescue the Jewish victims of Axis perse-
cution drawn up by the Emergency Con-
ference which met in New York in the
latter part of July were submitted to Sec-
retary of State Hull by a delegation sent
here by the Emergency Committee To
Save The Jewish People of Europe. Com-
prising Dean Alfange, American Labor
Party leader, Peter H. Bergson, head of the
Palestinian delegation to America, and Jo
Davidson, noted sculptor, the Emergency
Committee representatives recommended
that the United Nations, through the ini-
tiative of the U. S., organize a special gov-
ernmental agency to deal with the prob-
lem of rescuing the Jews of Europe . .
Members of the delegation reported fol.-
lowing the conference with Secretary Hull,
that the latter had assured them that travel
priorities as well as diplomatic aid would
be extended to representatives of the Com-
mittee.
In a six-column advertisement in the
New York Times, the Emergency Com-
mittee To Save The Jewish People of
Europe instituted an intensive campaign
for funds "in order to carry out our tre-
mendous task without a waste of time."
A program to commemorate the first
broadcast carried by the National Broad-
casting Company 20 years ago will be pre-
sented by NBC and the United Synagogue
of America on Aug. 29. The first Jewish
broadcast on Aug. 30, 1923, was a Selichoth
program featuring an address by Rabbi
Morris Silverman of the Emanuel Syna-
gogue, Hartford, Conn.
Refuting recent statements made by
metropolitan newspapers to the effect
that the kosher meat trade in N. Y. City
was receiving ample supplies while non-
kosher consumers were faring badly as a
result of the meat shortage, former Munic-
ipal Court Justice Nathan Sweedler, gen-
eral counsel for the Eastern States inde-
pendent slaughterers and meat packers, in
an interview with the Independent Jewish
Press Service, declared that the proportion
of meat diverted to Jewish consumers is
no greater than that consumed by Gentiles.
Dr. Joseph Schwartz, chairman of the
European Executive Council of the Joint
Distribution Committee, who is now visit-
ing Palestine, attended a meeting of the
Jewish Agency's Joint Rescue Committee.
Having heard proposals for augmented aid
to European Jewry, he promised to trans-
mit them to the New York office of the
J. D. C.
The 138 gallant Jewish Palestinian sol-
diers in the Royal Army Service Corps
who were drowned some months ago were
eulogized by Bernard Joseph, chairman of
the Jewish Agency Recruiting Committee,
in an article in the weekly publication, Life
in Palestine.
The first of 50 up-to-date refrigerating
plants to be installed under a combined
Government-Jewish Agency scheme in
Keren Hayesod villages for the cold storage
of vegetables and other farm produce was
opened recently in the Emek.
OVERSEAS
A demand for clarification of the atti-
tude of the Badoglio government toward
the Jews in Italy appeared in La Stampa,
Turin newspaper, which declared that
much confusion has resulted from conflict-
ing reports on the abolition of the anti-
Jewish laws instituted by Mussolini. The
general public ignores this legislation, La
Stampa asserts, but many officials are un-
certain as to whether or not they are re-
quired to act in accordance with those
laws.
Since December, 1942, the Rumanian
government has seized 1,451 Jewish fac-
tories, according to a report in the Bucha-
rest press. Jewish shipping confiscated by
the government, it is added, is now yield-
ing 112,000,000 lei annually.
Since the fall of Italy's fascist over-
lord, anti-Semitism has declined in the
Axis satellite countries, it is asserted by
the Turkish newspaper Yenisoba.
On the ground that everything the Jews
possess belongs to the government, non-
Jews in Klausen, Bulgaria have been for-
bidden to buy from Jews personal belong-
ings or any other property.
The Nazi postal authorities in the Uk-
raine have issued a stamp bearing the
picture of Begdan Chmelnitzky, notorious
anti-Semite, with the inscription: "The
First Ukrainian Killer of the Jews." Chmel-
nitzky was a Cossack headman who was
responsible for the pogroms of 1648 and
1649.
I. SIIEGIEIL Ce•
WOODWARD Al STATE
How Jews Confused, Routed
Nazis in Ghetto Disclosed
Used Captured German Guns and Wore Their Uniforms
To Wage Heroic Resistance Against Deportation,
Polish Underground Paper Reports
back to school
LONDON (JTA)—A report disclosing that the Jews in
the Warsaw ghetto used German guns and were dressed in
German military uniforms and helmets when they waged
their heroic resistance against the Nazi liquidation of the
ghetto, is published in the clandestine Polish publication
"Polska" which reached here. The equipment, the paper
says, was obtained by the Jews when they captured Nazi
factories in the ghetto at which Jewish workers were em-
ployed in compulsory labor.
The Jewish fighters, the paper reports, were assisted by firemen,
air-raid wardens and nurses. Prior to the beginning of the battle.
all Jewish women, children and aged men were secreted in under-
ground shelters in the ghetto, the publication states.
"The fight began when several Jews who were deported from
the Warsaw ghetto escaped en route and made their way back
to the ghetto," the underground paper declares.
They revealed that the Jewish deportees were being massacred
on the road. This led to Jewish defiance of a new order to assemble
another 5,000 for deportation.
"Gestapo units, entering the ghetto to enforce this order, were
met with showers of bullets and were forced to retreat. Whereupon
the Germans brought up four tanks firing chaotically into houses,
but the tanks too were forced to withdraw."
The paper reports streets were littered with bodies and it was
difficult to identify among the killed, Jew or German, since the
Jews were wearing "- the captured Nazi uniforms to confuse the
German soldiers.
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