Digest of World Press Opinion

The New York Times comments editorially on the agreement reached between France and Germany on the Saar Basin. The editorial apparently was written before it became known that this agreement provides equality for the Jews in the Saar for one year only. The editorial, therefore, strikes an optimistic note and says:

An incidental feature of the agreement is that Germany undertakes to accord full protection to the minorities in the Saar, including the Jews, of whom the number in that region is comparatively small.

If this German promise is lived up to in good faith, the volume of refugees from the Saar, whether Jews or Catholics, may not be so great as had been feared.

SEES LOOPHOLE

The Herald Tribune emphasizes the fact that the Franco-German agreement on the Saar provides equality for the Jews which is to last not longer than one year. The paper states:

Details of the accord were not available today, pending its presentation to the League Council. But it is understood that Germany guarantees that residents of the Saar who do not vote in the plebiscite, as well as those who do vote, will receive full official protection and be assured of freedom from molestation during an entire year following the vote, regardless of race, religion or language.

This is considered the most important feature of the agreement; but it is said that Germany makes a reservation as regards length of residence in the Saar which will exclude from the guaranty exiles from Germany who have settled in the Saar recently.

SCRAP OF PAPER

The New York Post terms the paragraph of the agreement protecting Jewish rights in the Saar for a year a “scrap of paper.” The paper comments editorially:

That the agreement “safeguards” the rights of all Saarlanders, regardless of language, race and religion, will fool nobody.

Similar “safeguards” were included in the peace treaties, but they have proved to be worth less than the paper they were written on.

How much protection have these safeguards been to Germans, Ukrainians, White Russians or Jews in Poland? To Germans in Polish Silesia? To Poles in German Silesia? To Croats or Slovenes in Yugoslavia? To any of the minorities in defeated states and the new states which came out of the war?

None at all.

And these safeguards will mean nothing at all to the same religious, racial and political elements in the Saar who have been the objects of discrimination and persecution in the Third Reich.

WANTS EXPLANATION

The New York Sun demands an explanation of now Germany will carry out its promise with regard to the Jews in the Saar. The paper states in an editorial:

The settlement is said to involve a threefold pledge by Germany that it will guarantee to non-voters the same status given to voters, that it will grant equal rights to all in respect of state assistance, social insurance and the like and that it will not discriminate against anybody on account of race, language or religion.

There are many Jews in the Saar; how it is proposed to fit this promise into the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany is not yet clear. Doubtless further light on this will appear after the settlement has been submitted to the league’s council on Wednesday.

JEWISH FRONTIER ANALYZES BIAS

An analysis of anti-Jewish discriminations in the United States is given in the Jewish Frontier by I. M. Rubinow. The author declares:

Discrimination is not limited to the economic field. It is probably stronger in the field of social relationships. To mention its obvious manifestations, there is the exclusion of Jews from ordinary private social life, exclusion of Jews from clubs, fraternities, summer hotels, certain high – grade apartment houses, etc. Occasionally this form of exclusion calls forth articulate protests, private or public —it has even led to efforts at special legislation —but on the whole American Jewry accepts the situation not very graciously, not very philosophically, but accepts it all the same, and endeavors to adjust its own social and recreational life to existing conditions.

Obviously, economic discrimination strikes at a very much more vital interest. The Jew finds such discrimination in the field of commercial, industrial, or even professional employment, and as the vast majority of people are forced to earn their living through employment contract, the possibility of discrimination presents a danger for nearly every Jew; even disregarding any specific rumors and charges sometimes denied, sometimes explained, sometimes admitted, by individual firms, it is nevertheless fairly well known that in certain important branches of office and clerical work, the door to the Jew is almost absolutely closed.

SYRIAN SUSPENSION MAY EFFECT COUNCIL

That the suspension of the Syrian parliament may indirectly affect the creation of the proposed legislative council in Palestine is predicted in the Near East and India, semi-official organ of the Colonial Office. The paper writes:

The suspension of the Syrian parliament will not pass without comment in Palestine, where attention is now being directed to the prospect of the establishment of a legislative council.

The inability of Syria, in common with many other countries, to make a success of parliamentary institutions has little bearing, however, on the proposed experiment in Palestine. In the latter country the council will be brought into being less with the idea that a more democratic tinge is required for the administration than for the purpose of providing the Jews and the Arabs with a conference chamber, where they can meet and come to understand one another better.

It is not to be expected that the two sections of the community will at once settle down to work in complete harmony, or will show from the first day a full sense of their responsibilities. If they profit by the experience of Syria, they will decide that it is better to acquire by degrees a voice in the regulation of their own affairs than to dispense with it altogether, because they hanker after a fuller measure of independence from the outset.

CITES EDISON IN ANTI-NAZI DRIVE

The Supplement, a New York publication, draws the attention of its Christian readers to the anti-Jewish persecutions in Germany and suggests that the approaching Christmas be utilized by the Christians of the United States for propaganda against Germany’s cruelties. The publication states:

The Jewish Daily Bulletin of New York City, the best informant of Jewish news in the world today, published recently a letter from the late Thomas A. Edison which deserves widespread notice and consideration. It was written November 13, 1914, but is even more pertinent now when Hitlerite Germany is so beastly brutal and ungrateful.

“Replying to your favor of the 9th instant let me say that what I said was this: that the Germans took all the credit for the great advance of their nation in commercial prosperity, whereas the fact is that the military group that rules Germany had brains enough to take the advice of the great Jewish bankers and business men, and gave the captains of industry a free hand, thus enabling them to build up the enormous industry of modern Germany. I instanced the Bleichroeders, Ballin, Rathenau and Loewe, and said that if one went down to the bottom of things in the great and most successful industries, one would dig up a Jew who furnished the ability that made them a success.”

Coming from Thomas A. Edison this statement should make convincing appeal for the increasing cooperation of all good Christians everywhere to do whatever may be necessary to convert Germany’s cruelty into compassion. These Christians should feel that Christ is on trial under Hitler’s regime.

Jean Henri Simon, engraver of international repute, rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the wars of the first French republic.