Digest of World Press Opinion

Will there or will there not be a legislative assembly in Palestine?

The Near East and India, semiofficial organ of the British colonial ministry, answers this question by publishing the following editorial:

Sir Arthur Wauchope allowed little time to elapse after his return to Palestine before replying to the criticisms that had been evoked by his previous references to the establishment of a Legislative Council. Taking advantage of the presence of an Arab deputation which had come to complain to him about Jewish immigration, the High Commissioner stated that the British Government stood by its declaration of 1930 regarding a Legislative Council. A reasonable period will be allowed for an examination into the working of the new Municipal Councils, and in the meantime discussions will be inaugurated with Arab and Jewish leaders to consider the Government’s proposals for the establishment of a Legislative Council. When these discussions are opened it will, no doubt, be found that many of the fears aroused by the preliminary announcement rest on no solid foundation.

As in the case of the Indian Constitution, safeguards will play an important part in connection with the Palestine Legislative Council; the peace and security of the country will be assured, and no opening for infringing upon the terms of the Mandate will be given. It is essential however, that the leaders of the Jews and Arabs, who have made no effort of their own in this direction so far, should be provided with an opportunity for meeting in conference, for facing one another when they make their charges one against the other and for understanding one another better than they do at present.

On the Jewish side many arguments are adduced in support of the contention that it is premature to give Palestine a Legislative Council. Individually they may be legitimate and useful debating points, but singly and collectively they have no weight against the palpable fact that the present unsatisfactory state of affairs in regard to the relations between Jews and Arabs cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. In every sphere other than the political, Jews and Arabs are co-operating; such antagonism as there may be is almost exclusively confined to or inspired by the politically-minded on the two sides. As far as is known, no other suggestion for ending this state of affairs, apart from bringing the parties together in Legislative Council, holds the field. A policy of drift does not meet the situation; yet that would seem to be the only alternative offered by those who oppose the establishment of a Legislative Council.

CHRONICLE ATTACKS STAND ON QUOTAS

The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle comments editorially on the suggestion by Max D. Steuer and Dr. Samuel Kopetzky for a quota for Jewish medical and law students in American universities:

Any non-Jew bold enough to advocate that the Jews of America be reduced to second-class citizenship and be compelled to live within the walls of a medieval-type ghetto would be immediately pounced upon as an arch anti-Semite of the most virulent stripe. That any Jew might make such a declaration could only be conceived as the irresponsible mouthing of a lunatic. And yet, in effect and carrying out their statements to a logical conclusion, that is exactly what Max D. Steuer and Dr. Samuel J. Kopetzky have unwittingly involved themselves in when they declared themselves in favor of a quota for Jewish medical and law students in American universities.

Mr. Steuer is a Jew who has achieved national distinction as the most successful criminal lawyer in New York. Dr. Kopetzky is president of the medical board of Beth Israel Hospital, New York, and is undoubtedly a highly successful physician. As authorties in their respective professions we do not question their eminence, but as commentators on what we regard as one of the most fundamental of all Jewish civil rights in America, they have shown a woeful lack of that analysis and judgment which any professional man ought to apply to any important question in or out of his own particular field.

DISABILITIES IN POLAND

Under the headline, “The Barred Windows of Warsaw,” the B’nai B’rith Magazine publishes the following editorial in its current issue:

News reports brought strange tidings from Warsaw last month. Iron bars being put up against the upper windows of tenement houses in the Jewish district.

And why?

Jews were throwing themselves from windows. The number of suicides among Jews in Warsaw was increasing alarmingly.

And why were Jews killing themselves? Jews to whose traditions suicide was abhorrent? Many Jews killing themselves?

Jews in Poland have come almost to beggary. Even thousands who were well-to-do eat the meager bread of charity. Evil for all men are today’s economic conditions in Poland, but if there is a crust for others there is only a crumb for Jews.

If work is scarce, the way to make more work is to keep the Jews out of the trades. If professional men … lawyers, doctors … are impoverished, the way to do is to set bars up against Jewish doctors and lawyers. If the business of merchants languishes the way to help the Polish merchants is to destroy competition by oppressive taxes against Jewish merchants.

Thus by a slow crushing Poland has accomplished in a number of years what Hitler did by a stroke in Germany. The German method may be the more efficient, but the Polish way is more diplomatic.