All shades of public opinion in England united today in condemnation of the Nazi pogroms, with special prayers for the victims being included in services in scores of churches throughout the land in accordance with a plea by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
At Durham, a Diocesan conference adopted a resolution expressing horror at the pogroms and assuring the Jewish community of its deep sympathy during their “terrible trials.”
Lord Meston, president of the Liberal Party organization, issued on behalf of the party a statement expressing “indignation and disgust” at the persecution of Jews and pledging to support the Government in whatever influence it would bring to bear on Germany to stop the atrocities. Earl de la Warr, Lord Privy Seal and president of the Board of Education, declared the excesses indicated that for those desiring to defend the decencies of life it was necessary to be strong in arms and morally. Mrs. Walter Elliot, wife of the Health Minister, said in a speech that it was impossible to read of the happenings in Germany without feeling that “we are back in the Middle Ages.”
The Sunday Times, denouncing the persecutions as a “slide back to barbarism,” urged that the only permanent solution for Jewry was a national home. It warned that there would be unrest and trouble wherever Jewry extended until a solution was found. The Sunday Observer stressed the danger to Anglo-German relations, declaring brutality and atrocity “pass the understanding of normal human beings” and terming the pogroms “inhuman fury.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, crystallizing British horror at the Nazi pogrom, yesterday called upon churches throughout the Empire to offer up prayers for the victims of “this fresh onset of persecution.” Declaring he spoke for the Christian people of Great Britain, the Archbishop in a letter to The Times expressed “the feelings of indignation with which we read of the deeds of cruelty and destruction which were perpetrated Thursday in Germany and Austria.”
The Times also published a letter from Lord Rothschild, in which he deplored the assassination of Ernst vom Rath but strongly condemned if world Jewry continued to criticize the Reich, the young Cambridge scientist said: “I have no fear of doing this because their torments cannot be increased except by such refinements of torture as would create horror in Germany itself. Almost the only thing left for them is death and for many that would be a welcome and blessed relief.”
Speaking at Northampton, Sir Archibald, Liberal M.P., described the German pogrom as the most ferocious since the Middle Ages. It must be made clear to Germany, he declared, that if she wants friendship she must cease persecuting and robbing Jews and “flinging them upon the charity of neighbors.”
“The first lesson to draw from the persecutions,” Sir Archibald said, “Is the urgent need for generous fulfillment of British obligations to world Jewry and the League of Nations under the Palestine Mandate.”
Referring to the question of colonies, he declared that Britain could not hand over the primitive people of Africa to a Government permitting even the instigating of “vile outbursts of frenzied barbarism.”
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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.
