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Page 31 The Southern Israelite Lord Melchett Denies Rumors He Has Ulterior Motives In Dead Sea Concession Writes to London Weekly Which Quoted Rumor That He Seeks to Prevent Dead Sea Exploitation in Interest of German Potash Deposits London (J. T. A.)—Lord Melchett has taken steps to dispel rumors which were current here and which found expression in public print that he sought to prevent the full exploi tation of the Dead Sea concession be cause of his financial interest in the Gorman potash works. Writing to the London Jewish Chronicle which published this rumor I>,id Melchett declared: “Neither I nor any company connected with me has any interest whatsoever in conti nental potash. The question whether the potash salts of the Dead Sea are •apable of being commercially suc cessfully utilized further experiments will determine. My motives are not in fluenced by personal gain, the fact of which those who know me can be cer tain after my sufficiently long public life. From my speech in the House of Lords, it is obvious that I am doing my best to secure the rights of the .Jewish Palestinians in the concession for the National Home.” The editorial in the London Jewish Chronicle in its issue of April 12 read: “The vexed questions that have clus tered about the concessions which the British Government is considering in respect to the working of the deposits to be found in the Dead Sea are still subjects of negotiation. We refer to them here not in order to discuss the question in any detail, but to call at tention to a paragraph which appear ed in a recent issue of Brittannia. We reprint the whole of the reference which is as follows: “ AV ith all respect for Lord Mel chett, we are not concerned with the late of the continental monopolists, who find it necessary to restrict out put in order to keep up prices. If their potash mines are deep and ex pensive to work, they are in no worse plight than half the coal-owners in Britain and entitled to no greater sympathy. ‘“Dn the contrary, it is quite defi nitely to the interest of this country that the monopoly of the Franco- Geiman cartel should be broken, that agriculture should obtain cheap pot ash (which would make Britain less dependent upon imported food), and that the vast deposits of mineral wealth which now lie fallow in the Dead Sea should be exploited by Brit ish companies with British capital, and remain essentially under British control. “Now the underlying suggestion here made is one which we venture to say should receive the careful at tention of Lord Melchett. The impli cation made is clear. It is that he is exercising what influence he possesses to prevent full advantage being deriv ed from the Dead Sea deposits in def erence to interests in which he per sonally is concerned. This would be a serious imputation, even if Lord Mel- chett’s influence were only that of a very wealthy English public man. Be cause it would inferentially point to his setting up what he thinks is his private advantage against that of the country’s. But Lord Melchett’s posi tion is far otherwise. He is deeply interested in Palestine work. He is a prominent Zionist and President of the English Zionist Federation. He will surely be the first to see the in- compatability—to put it no more strongly—in the circumstances of the attitude which the paper alleges he is taking up in the matter of the Dead Sea concessions. We hope that he will lose no time in putting this matter right. In all probability there is noth ing in the Britannia story. But, on the other hand, it is but right to say that it is one which has for some time past been the subject of general humor. So that not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the cause for which he has made so many material sacrifices and of which he is one of the chief uphold ers in this country, we hope that Lord Melchett will take the earliest oppor tunity of making explicit denial that he is in any sense striving by any means to obtain a restricted output of the Dead Sea deposits, so that the prices of competing Continental prod ucts, from which he derives large profits, may be upheld.” NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF UNITED JEWISH CAMPAIGN CALLED IN CHICAGO, MAY 11-12 Joint Distribution Committee Leaders Issue Call; To Consider Present Situation of European Jewry. New York (J. T. A.).—Another conference of the United Jewish Cam paign was convoked for May 11 and 12 at the Standard Club, Chicago, ac cording to an announcement from the headquarters of the United Jewish Campaign. A call to attend the conference was issued by Louis Marshall, David A. Brown, national chairman of the United Jewish Campaign, Col. 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