The British press yesterday featured and widely commented on the statement by Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon addressed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and to Sir Archibald Hurd, in which he denied being of Jewish origin and denounced anti-Semitism.
“It is to Berlin that Simon’s letter is addressed,” the Daily Telegraph commented editorially.
In his letter to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sir John said: “I am just an ordinary Briton of ‘Aryan’ stock without any Jewish admixture. My mother comes from an old English family. My father was Welsh.
“I hope this denial will not be distorted into sympathy with anti-Semitism which I regard as un-English and which I utterly condemn.”
In his letter to Hurd, Sir Johnadded: “I count among my friends many English Jews whose British outlook and patriotic services should put their critics to shame.”
Sir John’s statements and the comment of the press, however, failed today to deter Sir Oswald Mosley, British Fascist leader, from announcing at a public meeting that “Britain once fought Germany for Britain but we wouldn’t fight Germany for the Jews.”
The Blackshirt, organ of his Fascist group, came out today, with a warning that “the Jews in England are playing with fire and may not realize it before it is too late.”
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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.
