VISCOUNT CECIL OF CHELWOOD, FAMED BRITISH PACIFIST AND HEAD OF THE BRITISH LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION, TODAY WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR 1937.
PROMINENT AMONG LORD CEDIL’S HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN HIS OPPOSITION TO THE NAZI REGIME IN GERMANY, HIS SERVICE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNING BODY CREATED BY THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN 1933 TO DEAL WITH THE REFUGEE PROBLEM AND HIS SUPPORT OF THE JEWISH HOMELAND IN PALESTINE.
ADDRESSING THE COUNCIL OF THE GOVERNING BODY ON REFUGEES IN MAY, 1934, LORD CECIL BLAMED THE REFUGEE PROBLEM ON “MEASURES THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT HAS SEEN FIT TO TAKE.” IN ANOTHER ADDRESS HE URGED CIVILIZED COUNTRIES TO OPEN THEIR GATES TO “REFUGEES FLEEING FROM PERSECUTION, INTOLERANCE AND BARBARISM.”
LORD CECIL HAS EXPRESSED DOUBTS OVER THE LASTING EFFICACY OF RELIEF AGENCIES IN DEALING WITH THE REFUGEE PROBLEM. SOME, HE SAID, COULD BE ABSORBED IN PALESTINE, AND A NUMBER IN OTHER OVERSEAS COUNTRIES, BUT HE FELT THAT NO NATION COULD OPPRESS ITS SUBJECTS WITHOUT LEADING TO INTERNATIONAL REMONSTRATION.
HE HAS MADE MANY STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF JEWISH COLONIZATION IN PALESTINE, AND HE SUCCEEDED LORD BALFOUR AS PATRON OF THE ANGLO-PALESTINE CLUB.
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.
