The Board of Deputies of British News today issued a statement expressing “distress” at the reports that the activities of the Palestine extremists are to be extended to England. At the same time, the statement regretted the “sensationalism of these reports” emphasizing that they can foster anti-Jewish feelings.
“The Anglo-Jewish community,” the statement says, strongly condemns the policy of terror and intimidation. It fully realizes the importance and the necessity of all security precautions taken. But it regrets the sensationalism of the reports which can only tend to create bad feeling against the Jews. British Jewry is at one with all others in its anxiety to see rooted out an evil which is contrary to the teachings and principles of the Jewish faith.”
Fascist organizations are already exploiting the scare heads in the press for anti-Semitic propaganda. They are circulating rumors that arms are cached in synagogues and calling for the destruction of the houses of worship.
The Spectator today expressed doubts concerning the sincerity of the Jewish Agency’s recent repudiation and condemnation of terrorism and said that David Ben Gurion’s recent speech in America (presumably at the Hadassah convention in Boston) was “little more than incitement to further criminal acts.” It questioned the wisdom of assigning part of the monthly Palestine quota to illegal immigrants, deploring that this only encourages undesirables and excludes those who are more deserving. The paper says that conditions favorable to terrorism will exist as long as funds and organizations exist to promote illegal immigration.
When the liner Ascania arrived in Liverpool from the Middle East today with about 1,000 Jewish passengers, heavy police guard was thrown around the dock area, and only those persons who had official business on the pier were allowed through. Press photographers were compelled to open their cases and reporters were turned away unless they had special permits issued by the Ministry of Transport. Military and civil police, meanwhile, screened all of the passengers.
Rev. Harris Lazarus, Acting Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, today told the JTA that his reported appeal to British Jews to give all possible information to the authorities concerning terrorists was a fabrication. He said that he had made no such appeal since the matter is not one for individual action, but for the police and military authorities.
The Daily Graphic today reports that Scotland Yard has informed Gen. Wladislaw Anders, head of the dissolved Polish Army in Britain, that eight hundred demobilized Polish Jewish soldiers who arrived in Britain recently have been placed under mass-detention in a camp in Southern Scotland the location of which is being kept secret.
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.
