Jan Masaryk, recently resigned Czecho-Slovakian Minister to London and son of the late founder of the Czechoslovakian Republic, believes that “there is too damned much anti-Semitism” in his native country, but holds that the people “are more to be pitied than censured.”
“There is not much anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia,” Mr. Masaryk said in an interview on his arrival here to deliver a series of lectures in support of democracy. “I understand that in Slovakia there is a rather wild government and it is behaving badly. In Slovakia — and as a Slovak I speak with a bleeding heart — there is too damned much anti-Semitism.”
The former diplomat said that anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia was a reaction to recent events. “The people wouldn’t usually react favorably to something that is lousy,” he declared. “But i can forgive them a great deal. They are really more to be pitied than censured.”
He expressed great concern over the refugee problem. Asked what he thought was the most hopeful solution of the question, he shrugged his shoulders despairingly. “They can’t even swallow ten million of us (Czecho-Slovakians),” he declared. “We are too hard to get down.” He saw in Palestine at least a ray of hope. “I feel, as a moral issue, that Palestine should be given a chance,” he said. “It gives the Jews something to look to as a beacon. Although I am not an expert Zionist, I am going to speak for Palestine on moral grounds. Palestine remains a camera into which the refugee can look and hope to see a little bit of humanitarianism.” he will address the conference of the United Palestine Appeal in Washington next weekend.
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.
