Digest of World Press Opinion

Speaking about the sufferings of the Jews in Iraq, Israel’s Messenger a Jewish publication of Shanghai, China, says:

Iraq is apparently anxious to join the motley crowd of the persecutors of humanity without realizing the harm and degradation which it brings upon the religion of Islam. If Islam were to degenerate, not one Ahmdiyya movement, but hundreds will be needed to stem the tide of disintegration. Boasting of being in the majority is not a license to oppress the innocent. The Hindus are in the majority in India and yet they seldom boast of it and illtreat their Mohammedan neighbors! It would not be astonishing were the Hindus to teach the “Viki” Barna, of Paris, tolerance. The present symptom developing in Iraq is by no means wholesome. We hope the League of Nations will intervene and rebuke the “two-year-old-baby” and ask him to behave better and not degrade himself in the eyes of the civilized world.

OPTIMISM GREETS THE NEW YEAR

Commenting on what the New Year may bring to the Jews, the Jewish Press of Omaha, Neb., says editorially:

The new secular year comes riding in on the billows of ominous clouds; behind us is a twelve-month of tragedy and sorrow. Yet, the Jewish people look to the sunshine behind the clouds, the bright rays which must inevitably follow the storm. A people like the sons of Israel who disdain the present but look steadily to the future with hope eternal are themselves eternal.

It is therefore with optimism and despair that we look forward to the year before us. The trials and tribulations of our present day recall that in our honored history we have flourished despite the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Czarists; that Haman too had Hitlerite ideas; that it is better to be among the persecutors; that in every historic test we have emerged stronger and more numerous.

SHERWOOD EDDY ON JEWISH SITUATION

The views of Dr. Sherwood Eddy on the Jewish question are related in a number of newspapers in China, where Dr. Eddy was interviewed:

“What is your opinion about the boycott of German goods?” he was asked.

“I agree it is a useful weapon to combat the Hitler regime and force the people to realize what is actually happening in their country and in what light other nations look upon them. Jews alone will not succeed in undermining the economic life of Germany. On the contrary, they will be more disliked and hated and persecuted. Success will be largely due to non-Jewish elements joining in and it is an open secret that the latter are prosecuting the boycott with vim and vigor Jews, Socialists, Liberals, Radicals and Masons are all suffering under the autocratic regime. Of course, Jews suffer most.”

“Do you believe in Zionism as a remedy to cope with the present problem confronting Jewry?”

“You will find the answer in my recent book ‘The Challenge of the East,’ where a special chapter is devoted. I take a sympathetic view of the Zionist movement and side myself with the attitude taken by Dr. J. L. Magnes, Chancellor of the Hebrew University.”

NASHASHIBI AND PALESTINE ELECTIONS

Speaking about the fight conducted by Nashashibi against the results of the municipal elections in Palestine, The Near East and India writes:

The hearings of the three petitions brought by Ragheb Bey Nashashibi and two other defeated candidates to contest the validity of the recent municipal polls have been concluded before the Jerusalem District Court during the past week, and it is expected that judgment will not be long in being delivered. Pending a decision in these cases, the old Municipal Council, or the remnant of it, under the Mayoralty of Ragheb Bey, continues to function; and the situation thus created of the nine other elected members, the validity of whose return has not been challenged, remaining unconfirmed in their office because of the uncertainty attending the position of the three (Muslim) members, has called forth a protest, from the Jewish members particularly.

The whole issue of the Mayoralty is similarly in abeyance, and has given rise to rumor. There is one report that a pro-Nashashibi member of the Council for one of the Muslim wards intends to withdraw from his post, in order to enable a by-election to take place, at which Ragheb Bey would be a candidate; but, as the only Muslim remaining who might be expected to do this is Hassan Sidky Bey Dajany, and he is thought to be a candidate for the Mayoral office, other rumor-mongers do not think that he will take that radical step of abnegation.

A TRUE “ARYAN” STATE SHAMES HERR HITLER

The New York Times, in an editorial entitled “Will Germany Reconsider?” states:

Iran is not gone with all his Rose. On and after March 22 Persia will do business under its original name and style of Iran. The old Greek geographers were unkind to the Persians. They wouldn’t admit them to Aryana. “land of the Aryans”—that is, of some Aryans. Bactrians and Medes were also shut out. Persia, a country of poets, uses that crabbedly named figure by which a part is put for the whole. We have a proper veneration for the Aryans and have ever lifted pious eyes to the Iranian tableland; but sources of information were confusing. Not till the real, true and original Aryans were on the march in Germany was it possible to form an accurate notion of the surpassing nobility of a pure Aryan “race.”

Are the Iranians of Persia entitled to the majestic name they have assumed so lightly? The answer, however regretfully made, is No. Among the 10,000,000 people inhabiting Persia are 3,000,000 nomads, independent, or enrolled, without a Labor Front or labor camps. Hundreds of thousands are unblushing Semites. Some are of distant Mongolian origin. It is more than enough to say that there are some 675,000 Kurds, irregular and wild, unamenable to discipline. Can such vagrom men be permitted in a genuine Aryan State? The Statesman’s Year Book shows the fatal incompetence of the present Persia to qualify for the name it so rashly proposes to take:

“There is a wide tolerance exercised toward Armenians and Nestorians, Jews and Parsis in cities where Europeans reside.”

Such weakness is beyond the forgiveness or even the comprehension of an Aryan worthy of the name. Baron Von Neurath, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, may be expected to remonstrate with the Persian government. Herr Hitler is the Arch-Aryan of the one and only all-around and altogether Aryan paradise. Imitators and counter feiters, take notice!