Charges New Immigration Quota Law in South Africa Aimed Directly at Jews

The charge that the new immigration bill now being discussed in the South African parliament is aimed primarily at the Jews was made by Morris Kittredge, a Jewish member of parliament, during a public debate on the measure yesterday when the second reading of the proposed law, that would limit to 50 the number of immigrants admitted annually from all countries except twelve Nordic nations in Europe, the British Commonwealth and the United States, came up.

In his charge, Mr. Kittredge asked Dr. Daniel Malan, Minister of Interior, and author of the bill, to square his introduction of the measure with a recent statement of his in which he declared that the Jewish immigrants were the only ones not coming to the state for assistance, that the Jews were responsible for the development of the tailoring, boot, wool and other industries which employ hundreds of Afrikanders and that the Jews were assimilable and more bi-lingual than the rest of the population.

Before a crowded chamber, Dr. Malan defended his bill as being an effort to stem the “increasing stream of alien immigration, mainly from Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Russia. These immigrants are unproductive and evade the provisions of the present act.” He expressed alarm at the decrease in the stream of Nordic immigration and he pointed out that since the principal countries to which immigrants sought admission had now closed their gates South Africa was fearful that it might become the receptacle for the unwanted aliens of other countries.

The Minister of the Interior explained that the new quota bill was based on the country of birth thus, for example, if forty-three Scotchmen born of Scotch parents in Lithuania sought admission they would be counted as Lithuanians. He also pointed out that the bill provides for an unallotted quota of 1000, which will allow the desirables from the restricted countries to enter. This provision refers to the resolutions of various Jewish communities insisting that admission be based on individual qualifications and character and not on the country of origin. Dr. Malan also declared that the immigration laws of no other country in the world had such a provision in it. Intimating that it might be well for the Jews not to oppose the bill Dr. Malan urged them “to keep down the hostility of the population which in other parts of the world has led to disastrous results.”

C. P. Robinson, a Jewish member of parliament from Natal, in an eloquent plea said that the measure was the thin edge of the wedge to keep the Jews out. Emil Nathan, E. Buirski and Coulter also spoke against the measure.