South African Parliamentarian Scored for Attacks on Jews; Jewish Homeland Backed

Eric Louw, nationalist M.P. and one of the most vocal anti-Semites in the country, was described as “South Africa’s Julius Streicher” during a debate in Parliament in which Louw charged that the Department of Defense was giving a disproportionate amount of orders to Jewish firms. The attack on Louw was made by P. C. Pocock, a member of the Government party. A minor sensation was caused during the debate when Dr. Karl Bremer, a leading nationalist, scored racialism and pleaded for unity of all groups to further South Africa’s interests

A plea for similar unity around the Palestine issue was made by another nationalist member, J. G. Strydom, who declared that his party favored the creation of a Jewish National Home. “We will not play the same role as England in this connection,” he said. His statement was made after M. R. Kentridge, a Government member, appealed to Prime Minister Smuts to press for realization of a Jewish Homeland at the post-war peace parleys. Kentridge said that such a homeland was the only solution for the Jewish problem.