860C.4016/486: Telegram
The Ambassador in Poland ( Biddle ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 16—12:05 p.m.]
86. Polish press today prominently features reports of Jewish delegation’s call on Secretary Hull,48 its anti-Polish memorandum,49 Ambassador Potocki’s subsequent call on Secretary, and latter’s press statement.50 Gazeta Polska, leading pro-Government newspaper, contains on front page editorial comment generally accepted as Foreign Office statement warning Jewish leaders, presumably American Jews, against meddling in Polish internal affairs if they seek Poland’s help in Jewish efforts concerning Palestine.
The editorial follows in full:
“The above news, aside from a natural and impulsive revulsion which any attempt of undesirable elements to meddle in the internal affairs of the Republic must awaken in Poland public opinion, cannot but cause astonishment at the strategic blindness of the Jewish politicians. On the one hand, in connection with the fate of the future Palestinian State which is being decided upon now, they wish to obtain diplomatic help from Poland; on the other hand, they proclaim in Poland anti-emigration slogans and, at the same time, they institute an anti-Polish agitation outside the borders of Poland.
We do not believe that the Jewish policy if it is to follow this line will accomplish its purposes”.
- A committee headed by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, representing the American Jewish Congress, called upon the Secretary of State on July 12, 1937, in behalf of the situation of the Jewish population of Poland.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Reference is apparently to the Secretary’s statement, released July 16, 1937; for text, see vol. i, p. 699.↩