A several-hour discussion on the position of the Jewish people in Axis-held Europe marked today’s session of the annual conference of the British Labor Party. The session was climaxed by the adoption of a resolution calling on the United Nations to take measures to rescue European Jewry on a scale “proportionate to the unparalleled crime” committed by the Nazis.
Expressing “horror and indignation at Hitler’s bestial campaign of extermination of European Jewry,” the resolution urged all the Allied nations who are in a position to do so to admit Jewish refugees and to assist neutral nations to do the same. The resolution also emphasized that victory must ensure for Jews full civil, political and economic equality.
Touching on the question of Palestine, the resolution reaffirmed labor’s traditional policy of favoring the building of Palestine as a Jewish national home and recommended that the Jewish Agency be authorized to make the fullest use of the country’s economic absorptivity to develop the country, including unoccupied and undeveloped land. At the same time it demanded for the Jewish people an equal status among the free nations of the world and urged the party’s National Executive to combat the growth of anti-Semitism as a factor vitally connected with the Nazi Fascist outlook.
William Stoner, a Scotch delegate, in seconding the resolution implicitly criticized Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, Labor member of the Cabinet who was present at the time, for his attitude on the refugee question, declaring it was a libel on the British people to say that the admission of a few refugee children would create anti-Semitism.
Prof. Harold Laski, noted British economist, winding up the debate on the resolution, which was adopted unanimously, stated that “as a member of the Party executive and as a Jew, I accept this resolution on behalf of the executive committee.” He added that the Party accepts the right of the Jews to build a homeland in Palestine and regrets “the trickle of appeasement shown in this respect by obstructions from various sides.” He appealed to all Laborites to use their power and influence for “the salvation of the victims of the foulest crime in history.”
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.
