Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous British author who died here on Sunday, is recalled in British Jewish circles as a friend of the Jews. His defence of Oscar Slater, a Jew who served eighteen years’ imprisonment in Scotland for a murder of which it was later found he had been innocent, and who was subsequently freed, is particularly remembered by the Jews here. It was due mainly to the efforts of the late author of the great “Sherlock Holmes” detective stories that Slater was proven innocent.
It is also recalled here that Sir Arthur was a warm friend and supporter of Israel Zangwill, whom he aided in his efforts to find a suitable territory for Jewish settlement.
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