Six hundred Jewish workers employed on British military construction projects in southern Palestine have already been laid off from their jobs to make way for German prisoners of war whom the British authorities are importing for labor service here, it was learned today.
Hebrew papers throughout Palestine today said that the British decision to use German prisoners as forced labor might lead to grave tension. The presence of these men would encourage continued racial hatred and be a provocative step directed against the Jewish community, the papers said.
A strong protest against the importation of the Nazis was made by a Histadruth delegation which called on the Chief Secretary of the Palestine Administration today. In a cable to London, seeking intersession of the British Labor Party, the labor federation warned that the German prisoners will spread anti-Jewish propaganda among the Arab laborers with whom they will be working.
“It is impossible to ask Jews to acquiesce to the immigration into Palestine of Nazis among whom we see the slaughterers of millions of Jews,” the cable stated. “We cannot consent to the humiliation of living with them in our promised national homeland.
“There can be no doubt of their influence on their surroundings and on those with whom they will work. Please use your influence to spars us such humiliation and provocation.”
(The shipment of the German prisoners of war to Palestine was denounced today by the liberal Manchester Guardian as an act of “military lursay.”)
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