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Britain Ponders Action Against Arson Attacks on Synagogues

May 13, 1966
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Under persistent questioning by Members of Parliament, Attorney General Sir Elwyn Jones said in the House of Commons today that consideration was being given to whether further criminal proceedings should be started in London’s recent rash of arson attacks on synagogues.

The deputies questioned the Attorney General about a recent arson trial, in which four former member of the British National Socialist Party were freed on charges of setting fires to two synagogues. The questions concerned evidence by the prosecution at the trial, during the first week of April, that Mrs. Colin Jordan, wife of the British neo-Nazi leader, had encouraged some of the defendants to burn down synagogues. Sir Elwyn informed the House also that the police were continuing their inquiries into such reports.

Reginald Freeson, a Labor MP, declared that members of the neo-Nazi group, “together with other Fascists and anti-immigrant organizations, had in the past 20 months or more, been organizing arson, violence and even death against the Jewish and colored members of the community.” Sir Elwyn noted that Mrs. Jordan was currently outside the jurisdiction of British police.

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