Newspapers here, universally assailing the Italian expulsion decree, reported from Rome Today that thousands of Jews stormed American, British and other consulates seeking visas immediately after publication of the decree.
Branding the edict as “medieval in the worst sense of the word,” The Times stressed the honorable record of Jews in Italian history, declaring there had been no previous official indication of Jewish disloyalty to the regime.
The News-Chronicle expressed the opinion that Premier Benito Mussolini hoped by his action to “grease the berlin axis with the flattery of imitation or, the more probable explanation, wishes to continue in the post of protector of the Arabs, thereby complicating Britain’s Palestine problems.”
The Daily Herald said the decree had made it all the more urgent for the Inter-governmental Refugee Committee to produce an effective plan to enable the stateless and homeless to start life over. The daily express, branding the treatment of italian Jews “cruel and unconscionable,” stated there were plenty of uninhabited parts of the world where, “given a touch of the Christian spirit, Jewish refugees may yet find happy homes.”
Considerable speculation was caused by the fact that Italian East African possessions were not mentioned in the decree. Some circles expressed the opinion that premier Mussolini planned to compel Jews who had been ordered expelled and who were unable to enter other lands because of their lack of nationality to settle in Ethiopia and utilize their capital for developing the country.
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.
