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Case of Arson to London Synagogues Raised Again in Parliament

June 1, 1966
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The recently enacted Race Relations Act is a bill “with teeth but without guts,” Paul Rose, a Labor member of Parliament, complained yesterday in the House of Commons. He told the house that “there is now a substantial body of evidence showing a deliberate attempt to sow hatred.” The inadequacy of the new law, he said, had been pointed out during the debate before the new act was passed, “and now this assessment has proved correct, with cases of arson in places of worship and the circulation of racist literature.”

Mr. Rose referred to the fact that four young men, tried in the Central Criminal Court here for setting fire to synagogues, were freed. Maurice Foley, Undersecretary of the Home Office, conceded that, during the trial of the four men, it had been suggested that they were influenced toward committing the depredations by propaganda and incitements from Colin Jordan and the latter’s wife, as leaders of the National Socialist movement. However, he said, there was not sufficient evidence to warrant putting Jordan on trial.

Mrs. Jordan, he said, is now in France but there is not enough evidence against her to justify a request for extradition. “When she returns to Britain,” he said, “she may be interviewed by the police.”

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