[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generaly accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval. — Editor.]
There is speculation in Great Britain as to the political future of Sir Herbert Samuel, former High Commissioner of Palestine, in consequence of his recent successful mediation of the British general strike, it appears from an editorial in the “Jewish Guardian” of London (May 21 issue).
“We have ample cause to repeat the opinions expressed in these columns that his (Herbert Samuel’s) action last week has immensely enhanced his high reputation in the country,” avers the paper. “His political future is an interesting problem. The Liberal Party, to which he belongs, may still prove capable of resurrection. Few men, with the obvious exception of the Prime Minister, did so well in the recent crisis as Sir John Simon. Lord Oxford and Lord Buckmaster, all three colleagues of Sir Herbert Samuel The common rumor that he will accept a peerage is not supported by what we know either of his convictions or his ambitions. He is more likely one day to lead the Commons, and two other of his former colleagues, after all–Mr. Churchill and Sir Alfred Mond–are now following Mr. Baldwin. And for so impartial a Parliamentarian there is always the possibility of the Speakership.”
AN INSULT TO 25,000,000 AMERICANS
The denunciation by Edward L. McSweeney, assistant immigration commissioner at Ellis Island from 1893 to 1902, of the new immigration quotas, based on “national origins” and to become effective in 1927, is lauded by the “Jewish Independent” of Cleveland, in its May 28 issue.
Quoting Mr. McSweeney to the effect that the new quota laws are “insulting to the 25,000,000 Jews, Italians and South Irish in the United States” and that the “act is based on racial and religious bigotry,” the paper observes:
“Mr. McSweeney directs his attack byon the methods used in estimating the various national groups and points out that under the table accepted in 1924 by the House immigration committee, after July, 1927, three out of every five quota immigrants must come from Great Britain and North (Protestant) Ireland.”
The paper emphasizes its approval of the former immigration commissioner’s argument that “such a distinction is insulting to millions of worthy American citizens and that ‘it is inimical to the equality, common brotherhood and natural rights of the people of the United States’.”
The New York Law School awarded degrees of Bachelor of Law to 355 graduates at commencement exerices at Carnegie Hall last night. Of this number 250 are Jews.
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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.