Far from an abatement of Hun tactics in Germany, the Persecutions of the Hitler regime will probable increase in intensity and extent, Lord Dudley Marley fore. Cast yesterday during an interview with The Jewish Daily Bulletin.
“Taking the picture as a whole, the chairman of the World Committee to Aid Victims of Fascism found “the economic situation is getting increasingly worse. As the economic situation gets worse, so resistance to the regime increases, and repression gets worse. There is no doubt that the Jews in Germay are in for a considerably worse period.” He estimated that another 100,000 will join the refugees within the next eighteen months.
Although his recent American speaking tour in behalf of Nazi victims was termed successful by Lord Marley, his impression was that there had been ” a definite hardening of anti-Jewish feeling in this country” since his visit last year, when he spoke for the ORT. “There is no use shutting one’s eyes to it,” he said. “It is the historic role of the Jews to be the scapegoat during economic crises. I think it is very important for the Jews themselves to have unity. It will do no good for the prominent and wealthy section to ignore the problem, hoping they will be let alone, leaving it to the poorer section to suffer.”
COUNTRY DIVIDED
In sounding his warning to Jews in the United States, Lord Marley contended that this country is divided into three camps. The Liberal-Minded or Socialist group is utterly opposed to Fascism in any guese, while “an enormous group of leading industrialists, businessmen, teachers and students and other groups would be quite in favor of a Fascist movement here, without the cruelties abroad, and in between is a large class of people stunned by the economic erisis, who are ready to accept anything from the administration. That’s the group where danger lies.”
It is improtant for the Jews to realize, he said, that the German situation is not a Jewish question. Forming seven per cent of the German population, Jews compose only twenty per cent of those suffering under Hitler, inside Germany or as refugees, he explained. “So the important think is for the Jews of America to realize that they must unite with the other throutened factions, in case Fascism rises here, unless they wish to suffer the same fate as they have suffered in Germany.”
Lord Marley Estimated that nearly a million Germans are in prison or in concentration camps or liable at any moment to arrest and imprisonment. “And of course their wives and children too, and add to that about 75,000 resugees, who have fled from the terror.” Scoring reports that the terror had diminished, he said: “People don’t fly from everything they have built up for no reason.” What has happened, he claimed, is that less publicity is now being given the Nazi cruelties, as a result of repressive measures.
In England too Lord Marley foresaw evidence of the danger of the mounting tide of Fascism. He branded Sir Oswald Mosley as “a man of great capacity, singleness of purpose, utterly rethless and very cruel. I don’t suppose that he would let naything stand in his way when he wants it.”
COMMENTS ON TOUR
Commenting on the speaking tour he had just completed, Lord Marley said he met with “the most remarkable synpathy and support everywhere. The one thing that has emerged is that, given a good cuase, there is no difficulty of getting a reaction from diverse elements for a common action. The response has been extremely generous.”
His Milwaukee meeting on Fedruary 21, in spite of a misunderstanding with the Socialists, was characterized as “one of the best I had in the United States, from the standpoint of enthusiasm, attendance and collection.” The Milwaukee “dispute” with the Socialists was called “quite interesting” by Lord Marley. ” Apparently the Socialist Party there was doubtful about the non-political aspect of the World Committee, and whild the mayor, who is friend of mine, was orlginally on the reception committee and scheduled to come to the banquet, he stated later that he could no come to the banquet. This was misunderstood to be a withdrawal from participation in the reception to me. Then the mayor sent his representative to meet me, sent his car down and inveted me to come and see him at City Hall, which I did,” At City Hall the mayor explained to Lord Marley that his wife’s illness had forced him to cancel a Washington appearance, as well as the Milwall-Iree banguet. The radio station in Milwankee which was to broudcast his speech reneged at the last minute, Lord Marley continued, Fearing a controversial topic. “I was immediately offered the facilities of a much begger station there and I broudcast the address originally scheduled withou any alteration and to a much larger audience.”
Referring to an editorial attack in the New York Herald Tribune, Lor Marley Dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “I think they were very badly misled by information from Shanghai,” he said. ” I analyzed that editorial and there were sixteen statements in it, of which three were accurate.”
PRASES ORT
Toward the end of the interview, Lord Marley, wh is sailing on the Manhattan February 28 for England. Where he will resume his Parliamentary activities, paid high tribute to the ORT. “There are 1,500 ORT factories fully capable of receiving thousands of German refugees,” he stated. “I se no reason why the number absorbed in the next two or three years may not mach 20,000, and if that is so, it will mean a material contribution to the refugee problem. I have great hopes because money subscribed for this purpose by American Jews can actually help in aiding german Jews seven or eight times as much as aid in may other direction for the simple reason that the ORT Work is self-liquidating. That is to say, much of the money is repaid subsequently over a period of years.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
