Mr. Samuel Finburgh, former Conservative member of Parliament for Salford, of which town he has several times been Mayor, urged the Board of Jewish Deputies at its meeting to-day, to send a communication to President Hindenburg “to strengthen his hand against Hitler”. An expression of Jewish opinion in this country, he claimed, would do a great deal of good.
The President of the Board, Mr. O. E. d’ Avigdor Goldsmid, pointed out, however, that it has always been the policy of the Board not to intervene in matters affecting Jews in other countries, except at the special request of those communities.
The Board adopted a resolution, however, expressing its deep sympathy with the victims of the regrettable anti-Jewish outbreak in Berlin on the evening of September 12th., the Jewish New Year, and its satisfaction with the prompt measures which were taken by the authorities for the prevention of further disorders.
ANTISEMITIC PROPAGANDA IN SALONICA BEING CONTINUED WITH ENCOURAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL SUBVENTIONS FROM AUTHORITIES SAYS REPORT RECEIVED BY JOINT FOREIGN COMMITTEE WHICH IS ENQUIRING INTO ALLEGATIONS: SITUATION OF JEWS IN MEXICO AND CZECHO-SLOVAKIA: IN VIEW OF SMALL NUMBERS OF JEWISH POPULATION COMMITTEE FINDS NO ACTION NECESSARY AT THIS STAGE IN CONNECTION WITH POSITION OF JEWS OF INDIA DURING ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE WITH GOVERNMENT
Mr. Venizelos, the Greek Prime Minister, on more than one occasion after the anti-Jewish outbreaks in Salonica in June, emphatically stated that responsibility for the antisemitic agitation which led up to the outbreaks was to be ascribed to certain extreme Nationalist organisations, the report of the Joint Foreign Committee presented to the Board of Deputies says.
M. Venizelos confirmed this assertion in his interview with the Presidents and Secretary of the Committee in July, it proceeds. Nevertheless, the Committee is informed that the nationalist organisations are continuing their propaganda, and are, indeed, receiving encouragement and financial subventions from the authorities. The Committee states that it is enquiring into these allegations. The Joint Foreign Committee goes on to report that it has received from an authoritative source a further report on the alleged ill-treatment of the Jews of Mexico. It is stated that, although a certain amount of anti-Jewish propaganda has taken place, and a number of Jews were temporarily excluded from a market in Mexico City, this was merely part of a fundamentally economic anti-foreign movement principally among the trading community, not inspired by religious sentiment.
In view of the fact that there has been no repetition of the incidents which took place at the end of May and the beginning of June, the Joint Foreign Committee states that it does not consider that representations are now necessary and, moreover, it notes with satisfaction the admission of Mexico to the League of Nations by the last Assembly of the League. There is no reason to suppose, it says, that the Mexican Government will not honour the moral obligations for the protection of Minorities involved in its Membership of the League.
Doubtless owing to the preoccupation of the States Members of the League with more urgent questions, the report continues, the question of Statelessness was not set down on the Agenda of the Assembly. It is hoped, however, that it may be possible to report progress towards a solution of this long-standing and troublesome problem at no distant date.
That the problem is still grave in certain countries of Central and Eastern Europe is shown by information recently furnished to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that in Czecho-Slovakia, in the provinces of Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia, there are more than 100,000 people who have no citizenship, probably ten to fifteen thousand of them being Jews, while Deputy Landau stated in his newspaper “Unser Zeit”, of Kishin eff, in Roumania, that in consequence of the existing Citizenship Law “not only people whose citizenship rights are in doubt, but thousands upon thousands of people who were born in the country, children who were minors and whose rights were neglected by their parents, are now victims of the Law, condemned to be Stateless. The spectre of deportation looms over them”.
Mr. Julius Jung, Secretary of the Federation of Synagogues, moved that the passage about the Jews of Czecho-Slovakia be referred back. The large number of people mentioned as Stateless, he claimed, were only technically so, because they had not yet opted for the various nationalities. Mr. Morris Myer, editor of the “Jewish Times”, supported the reference back on the ground that they were singling out Czecho-Slovakia, whereas the problem was widespread.
On being put to the vote, the motion for a reference back was lost by a big majority after the President, Mr. O. E. d’Avigdor Goldsmid, had stated that there was no doubt about the accuracy of the information received, and that it was the object of the Board to get the proper authorities to consider the problem in view of the fact that so large a number of people were affected.
In view of the Round-Table Conference between His Majesty’s Government and the representatives of the various peoples of India, the Joint Foreign Committee reported, it has considered the position of the Jews of India, but, having regard to all the circumstances and in view of the smallness of the Jewish population – there being only about 20,000 Jews in a total population of some 300,000,000 – it does not think any action is called for at this stage.
JEWISH AGENCY IN VERY DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES AS RESULT OF FALL IN SUBSCRIPTIONS FROM AMERICA OWING TO ECONOMIC POSITION THERE: GRAVE REPORT BY MR. SIMON MARKS VICE-CHAIRMAN OF JEWISH AGENCY FINANCE COMMITTEE.
Mr. Simon Marks, Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Jewish Agency, called the attention of the Board during the consideration of the report of the Palestine Committee, to the fact that during the past year ending September 30th., some £28,000 had been collected in the British Isles for the Keren Hayesod.
In view of the economic situation, he went on, every effort is being made to reduce the costs of administration. The world Jewish Agency finds itself in very difficult circumstances as regards finance, he said. The economic position in America resulting, as it has done, in a falling off of subscriptions from that country, has caused hardship and difficulty, and as a result of that, the world Jewish Agency finds itself almost, I may say, in extremis.
I would like to suggest, Mr. Marks concluded, that those members of the Board who are interested in the Jewish Agency and in Palestine should come together in a special session in order to devise ways and means of appealing to the Jewish Community in this country. If we could come together, he said, we may not only be able to maintain the amount of the collections of the last year but to increase them.
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