A bill to amend the Public Order Act of 1936 in such a manner as to forbid incitement of hatred against any racial group was introduced today in the House of Commons. The bill formally received a first reading in the House immediately, as members of the Parliament pressed for speedy adoption of the measure before Parliament’s scheduled adjournment, next Friday.
The proposal to outlaw racial hatred came before Parliament as many Labor Party members denounced the recent wave of anti-Semitic and other fascist meetings conducted by the British National Socialist Party and by Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascist British Union movement.
The latest of the rallies was held last night in Hackney, an East London area with a heavy Jewish population. That meeting was halted by the police authorities after a brief but stormy riot during which Mosley himself was injured, while 54 persons were arrested.
George Brown, a Laborite who is deputy leader of the Opposition, told the House: “I feel a sense of shame that, after all that had happened in the 30’s, and even more after all the casualties between 1939 and 1945, we should be made to walk this road again.” Referring to the series of fascist rallies since July I, when the British National Socialist Party held a riotous rally at Trafalgar Square, he said:
“This is the moment when the House of Commons must surely stand and consider recent history. We have all walked this road before. Totalitarians and fascists set out to hold meetings, and hold them for the most part in places where the only possible purpose can be maximum provocation by insulting people in the places where they live peacefully and quietly. The only purpose of Mosley going to those areas was to insult some of Her Majesty’s fellow citizens just because of their race or religion.”
Ellis Smith, another member of the Labor Party, told Commons that “unless a guarantee is received that the constitutional rights of our people are going to be used in such a way as to prevent these provocations, we will be forced to take action to safeguard the democratic rights we possess.” Tom Driberg insisted on the withdrawal of permits already granted to the Mosleyites and to the National Socialists for meetings scheduled for September. “It would be dangerous.” he stated, “for the House to go away for three months until assurance is given that there will be no grave public disorder in Trafalgar Square or in other places, as there is bound to be, unless the Government cancels the permits already granted.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
