Defense Department Comments on Army’s Ban on Jewish Workers

There have been no instances of friction in North Africa involving American Jews connected with the Army’s base-building program and the Arabs, a spokesman for the Department of Defense said today. The Department noted, however, that no Jewish workers have been sent to that area as yet.

Maj. Gen. G.J. Nold, Deputy Chief of Army Engineers, told a Senate committee last week that the Army eliminated Jewish workers from among those hired for projects in French Morocco because of a “racial problem.” Despite Gen. Nold’s testimony a Defense Department spokesman said today that “there is no policy which would prohibit the sending of the members of any religion, as workers or as soldiers, to any area where the Army is operating.”