Digest of World Press Opinion

The American Mercury in its November issue will contain an article by M. W. Fodor on “Premier Goemboes of Hungary,” in which the writer emphasizes the fact that the Hungarian premier, once a bitter anti-Semite, changed his mind and became a friend of the Jews. Mr. Fedor writes:

One of the chief points in the program of Goemboes, was racial defense, just as it is in Hitler’s program. In fact, ever since 1921 there had been a very close connection between the National Socialists in the Munich headquarters and Captain Goemboes. Important emissaries from Germany constantly visited Goemboes in Budapest, and finally an alliance was concluded between Hitler and Goemboes, which ended only after the unsuccessful coup at the brewery in Munich in November, 1923.

As leader of the Fascist racial-defenders’ party, Goemboes demanded the maintenance of the numerus clausus, a law which was introduced during the White regime to keep out Jews or people of Jewish rights from the Hungarian schools, and which law brought a protest The writer also points out that:

… When Goemboes reached the highest rung of the ladder of public life, he discarded the methods once proposed by him; he threw overboard racial intolerance, activist anti-Semitism, and even the Fascist form of rule, and returned to a more democratic and parliamentary system of government, so often criticized by him in years gone by.

THE MENACE OF NAZI INTRIGUES IN THE U. S.

The Nation for October 31, commenting upon John L. Spivak’s revelations of Nazi intrigues and anti-Semitic propaganda in America, states:

Mr. Spivak has done an able job of old-fashioned muckraking, a combination of good reporting, good detective work, and good public service. The spread of Nazi spying and plotting, and of anti-Jewish and anti-radical propaganda, is a menace as well as a scandal. Perhaps it cannot be stamped out, but at least it can be exposed and known for what it is—a creeping paralysis that aims to wither everything in American life that is tolerant and humane and decent. If anyone objects that the spies and the plots so far uncovered are too fantastic to be worth serious attention, let him reflect that Hitler and his fanatics now rule Germany.

THE BERNE TRIAL—WORTH THE TROUBLE?

Does it pay for the Jews to continue the trial in Berne against the “Protocol” allegation?

This question is being asked editorially in the Hebrew Journal, Jewish daily newspaper published in Toronto, Ont. The paper writes:

It is difficult to express a definite opinion about the practicality of trials such as the one now being held in Berne, Switzerland. It is not only doubtful whether they can bring any use at all should the process be won, but it is also a large question whether in the winning the Jewish name and reputation are not damaged.

From experience we know that despite the expressed authority of judicial tribunals, before which libels against the Jews were denied, our enemies have not been deterred from making the same accusations against us again and again, with just as much force as before the accusations were declared false. The best illustration is the charge of ritual murder. This medieval accusation was thrown at the Jews even after the Vatican declared it untrue and courts in various parts of the world had branded it as libel.

A NAZI REPORTS ON JEWISH PALESTINE

Der Angriff, official organ of Dr. Goebbels, which has gone to the trouble of sending a special man to Palestine to investigate whether Palestine can solve the Jewish problem, has now concluded the series of twelve articles which appeared in the Nazi paper under the title “A Nazi Goes to Palestine.”

In his last, twelfth, article, the Nazi investigator summarizes his impressions of Palestine. He comes to the conclusion that the further upbuilding of Palestine depends fully upon the reaching of an understanding between the Arabs and the Jews. The artificial border set up against Transjordania cannot be maintained permanently, since then Transjordania would go completely to pieces. Therefore the Jewish settlement will of necessity in time also extend beyond the borders of actual Palestine. The chapter—and with it the whole series of articles—ends with the following thesis:

From this point of view, the possibility of a strong Jewish return migration arises. It depends upon the Jews not to become “Levantines” again, but rather to create a home for themselves by the cultivation of land which belongs to them. In this respect, the need of an own state is not a foreign conclusion. How many nations were not “state people” for hundreds of years and yet nevertheless preserved their folkdom!

The problem of Jewish Palestine can no longer be denied today. It exists, it grows from day to day. And it is well so, for it shows how an age-old wound in the body of the world—the Jewish problem—could heal.

PALESTINE PROGRESS VEXES POLISH ENDEKS

The Gazeta Warszawska, official organ of the anti-Semitic Endek party in Poland, which has proclaimed the anti-Semitic slogan, “Jews—to Palestine,” has suddenly discovered that Jewish development in Palestine is dangerous to the interests of Poland. The paper writes:

The realization of the Jewish program in Palestine should under no circumstances be considered a fact favorable to Polish interests. The crux of this fact is not so much the migration of Jews from Poland to Palestine as the creation of a Jewish political center in Palestine which will strengthen Jewry as a whole.

The migration of Jews from Poland to Palestine, which means so much in the life of Palestine, is however, without significance for Poland: figures show that it does not even subtract the natural increase of Jews in Poland. If Palestine, or any other country which the Jews would use for their national home, would take such numbers of the Jewish population from us, if this gave us the hope of getting rid soon of the Jews generally, we would be able to observe the development of Jewry in that new country without any dissatisfaction whatsoever.

But Palestine, in the plans of the Jews, is not a point for collecting the whole of Jewry. Palestine is not even intended to obviate the diaspora, but must exist in addition to the diaspora as a political backbone to strengthen its moral force. Naturally, under such conditions the rise of a Jewish Palestine not only does not lessen the Jewish question in Poland, but serves to sharpen it, because it increases the political force of that part of Jewry which lives among us.

Despite the immature opinions of many Poles who visit Palestine of late and are glad of the development of the Zionist project, we consider this project to be an injurious one for Poland rather than a favorable one.