Now- Editorial Notes

SOME time ago, when the Stavisky affair assumed proportions of a first class scandal in France, and the Chautemps Cabinet was wrecked, we published a cable from our correspondent to the effect that Alexander Stavisky was not a Jew, that neither his parents nor his grandparents were Jews. According to an investigation made by a French weekly journal, Stavisky’s mother had been converted to Carholicism from the Greek Orthodox faith, which some of the French newspapers mistook for conversion to Judaism.

In the editorial comment on this bit of news I wrote that even if Stavisky had been of Jewish origin there was no sense in making a Jewish issue of the affair, for a nation cannot be held responsible for some of the criminals in its midst.

The anti-Semitic and reactionary press in France, encouraged by Nazi propagandists, tried to fan the flames of anti-Jewish race hatred on the ground that Stavisky was a Jew. And in this country, some of the leading newspapers kept repeating that Stavisky was a Russian Jew.

Further inquiry in France now reveals the fact that neither Alexander Stavisky nor his parents were Jews. His father and grandfather were buried in Paris in a Protestant cemetery, under # cross. It is not definitely known whether Stavisky’s grandparents were born Jews and converted to Christianity.If they were, Alexander Stavisky would have been classified as a Jew by the Hitler standard, but not by any other standard.

The Jews have a deep contempt for Jewish criminals, and assume no responsibility for them, even though it is customary to blame the entire Jewish people for the few individual criminals. The Jews certainly do not have to defend themselves against the charge that the grandson of a Jewish renegade turned out to be a swindler.The Jews themselves have the greatest contempt for such renegades, who often turn out to be the bitterest enemies of the Jewish people.

THE NAZI ULTIMATUM

THE impudent ultimatum broadcast from Munich to Austria to submit to Hitlerist Nazism within the next eight days is characteristic of Teutonic blundering arrogance. Hitlerist Germany, though trying to make the world believe that she is pursuing a policy of peace, is violating all accepted international rules of peace. But this latest irresponsible threat, backed by the Nazis, is certain to stiffen the resistance of France, England and Italy to the Nazi attempts to gain control of Austria without an official Anschluss for

The Italiain press reminds Germany of the help Italy had given to Germany on various occasionas,and that Italy and Germany now find themselves in opposite camps as a result of the Nazi attitude toward Austria.The rift between Italy and Germany is rapidly widening.The irritation between Mussolini and Hitler is growing more acute.And there is hope that ,as a result of this conflict between the two distators,Hitlerist Nazism will soon be curbed at last.