A Week’s Events in Review

The resignation of Premier Ramsay MacDonald, and the elevation of Stanley Baldwin to succeed him, will take place at the end of this week.

This is considered a certainty, and in connection with this change, predictions are being made that Malcolm MacDonald, the son of the Premier, will be appointed Colonial Secretary to replace Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister.

Although the Jews would like to see the young MacDonald in the position of Secretary for the Colonies, it is, I believe, safe to say that the chances for the Premier’s son to obtain this position are very slim. Age plays a very important role in British politics, and the appointment of Malcolm MacDonald as member of the British Cabinet would meet strong opposition because of his youthfulness.

APPOINTMENT SEEN PRO-JEWISH STEP

The appointment of Malcolm MacDonald as Colonial Secretary, if it became a fact, would turn over a new leaf in British-Jewish relations, as this would be definitely interpreted as a pro-Jewish step. The young MacDonald is known to be favorably inclined toward Zionist work. He was responsible for the famous “MacDonald letter” which came as a modification of the White Book and the Shaw Report, against which the Jews all over the world protested. He is in constant touch with Jewish leaders in England and is deeply interested in the problems affecting the upbuilding of a Jewish National Home in Palestine.

The appointment of young MacDonald as Colonial Secretary would serve as the best assurance that the projected establishment of a Legislative Council in Palestine will not take place. The danger of establishing a Legislative Council is still imminent now, under Cunliffe-Lister. It may come up immediately after the next session of the Mandates Commission this month. It may be postponed for a long time, however, if young MacDonald replaces Cunliffe-Lister.

MANDATES BODY WILL NOT CONSIDER COUNCIL

The session of the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations which opens this week in Geneva will not deal directly with the question of establishing the much feared Legislative Council. References to this question are made, however, in the report which the Palestine government submitted to the session.

Ambitious to establish the Legislative Council in Palestine before this term as High Commissioner expires, Sir Arthur Wauchope makes it clear that the Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine can, in his opinion, greatly benefit by the establishment of such a Council, which should consist of representatives of the Jews, Arabs and British officials.

Besides the report of the Palestine government, the present session of the Mandates Commission will also have in its possession a report of the Jewish Agency. It is in the latter that Jewish views on the present situation in Palestine are expressed.

The Mandates Commission at its present meeting will probably have no discussion at all on Palestine. It will accept the report of the Palestine government without question and with a vote of confidence.

A point of interest at the session of the Mandates Commission may be the petition submitted by the Zionist Revisionists of Palestine asking that Palestine be proclaimed as a Jewish State. Such a petition was already submitted to the Revisionists last year, and was rejected by the Mandates Commission. The Commission explained that the Mandate on Palestine provides only for “the establishment of a Jewish National Home,” and that there is a difference between a Jewish State and a Jewish National Home.

Defeated once before the Revisionists are now coming again to Geneva with the same demand for a Jewish State. Their petition will no doubt be rejected by the Mandates Commission now just as it was last year. It seems, however, that the Revisionists have made up their minds to appear at every session of the Mandates Commission with this petition, until the members of the Commission acquire a fundamental knowledge of the Revisionists’ claims.

‘JEWISH SEASON’ AT GENEVA

The “Jewish season” in Geneva which usually starts with the session of the Mandates Commission, began this time a week earlier with the Jewish petition to the League of Nations against the Danzig Nazi administration. This petition, which came up last week, culminated in a victory for the Jews. The president of the Danzig Senate, who appeared before the Council of the League of Nations, admitted that the Jewish position in Danzig has become worse since the Nazis came into power in the Free City. He agreed that a special committee appointed by the League should Nazi controlled administration investigate to what extent the of the Free City is violating the constitution of Danzig by anti-Jewish legislation.

Although the results of this committee’s investigations will not be reported until the September session of the League Council, it is assumed that the Nazi-controlled Senate of Danzig will now be more careful in its anti-Jewish policy. Still under the control of the League of Nations, the Danzig Senate, though dominated by a Nazi majority, will not want to expose itself to a more rigid control by the League because of the 8,000 Jews residing in Danzig. The anti-Jewish policy in Danzig may therefore be alleviated as a result of the Jewish petition.

THE NAZI RIOTING IN BAVARIA

Defeated in Danzig, the Nazis this week carried out a number of anti-Jewish outbreaks in Bavaria which culminated in riots in Munich. Jewish stores in Munich were forced to close by Nazi pickets who were organized in the City Hall by local officials and who indulged in open fights with the local Catholic population which tried to patronize the Jewish stores in defiance of the pickets. The anti-Jewish riots in Munich assumed such a menacing character that a great number of Jews were considering leaving the city. The repercussions which the riots produced abroad were such that Hitler himself ordered an investigation.

As a result of Hitler’s personal order, the Bavarian Minister of Interior, Adolf Wagner, arrested a number of ringleaders of the Nazi pickets, and issued a communique in which he blamed expelled Nazi members for the riots. In his communique, the Minister carefully avoided mentioning that he himself congratulated the Nazi pickets for their “good piece of work” a day be before the order from Hitler arrived. Most of the pickets were not criminals, as the Nazi Minister asserted, but students of the local university who were well organized by State officials to picket Jewish stores and smash Jewish windows.

MUNICH A LINK IN ANTI-JEWISH EVENTS

The Munich riots against Jews were only a link in the chain of anti-Jewish events which continued to take place throughout Germany last week, and which included also the the liquidation of the largest Jewish agricultural settlement in Gross Gaglow, near Berlin, where Jews were trained for farm work.

Ambitious to acquire colonies, the Nazi government this week sent out its Ambassador in Egypt for a trip throughout the entire Near East. The Nazi Ambassador will visit all the countries in Arabia and will go as far as Persia and Afghanistan, which are situated on the frontier of the Asiatic part of Soviet Russia.

The importance which the Nazi government attaches to this ### can be seen from the fact that the Ambassador, after completing his tour, will immediately have to report to Berlin in person. His voyage is considered as a reconnoitering trip to establish whether Germany can find a foothold in Arabia, just as Italy has now in Ethiopia.

NAZIS HELD TO BLAME FOR LODZ OUTBREAKS

The anti-Jewish Nazi movement in Germany is held responsible also for a bloody outbreak which took place this week in Lodz, Poland, at a session of the Municipal Council in that city. It was sufficient for one of the councillors to make a remark against the Nazi spirit, when chairs and inkwells began to fly from the side where the anti-Semitic members of the National Democratic Party have their seats. A number of municipal councillors were seriously injured, others slightly, in the fight.

The bloody clash in Lodz may lead to the liquidation of the present Municipal Council by the central authorities. An investigation has been started by the State’s Attorney, the outcome of which may lead to the imprisonment of those guilty of starting the riot.

An important event this week was the decision in Rumania to abolish the university autonomy for all universities in the country, in order to be able to bring police into university grounds in time of anti-Jewish disturbances.

This decision was adopted at a joint conference of rectors of the universities with representatives of the government. The government seems anxious not to have any anti-Jewish disturbances repeated in the universities, but it does not seem so anxious to hamper the anti-Jewish propaganda in the Rumanian press, despite the fact that the present martial law in the country prohibits anti-racal propaganda.