The resignation of James G. McDonald as League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees created a sensation throughout Britain today, gaining large front page headlines in the morning and afternoon newspapers.
The Morning Post reported that the resignation had evoked the widest interest in Geneva. The New Chronicle stated in an editorial: “Few more damning indictments of a civilized nation can ever be issued.” The editorial asserts that “the League is morally bound to protest against this appalling state of affairs with the dangers to the whole world that it threatens” which Mr. McDonald disclosed in his letter of resignation.
An editorial in the Daily Telegraph declares: “Public attention throughout the world will be arrested by this statement.” The editorial maintains that the German Government, by reducing Jewish citizens to “a cruel plight,” has weakened the power of Germany within and without the Reich. “Her best friends must hope she will not neglect to consider the advice of world opinion,” the editorial adds.
The resignation was carried on the front page of the conservative Times with a streamer headline and the full text of the letter
was printed. In an editorial The Times asserted that “the letter reveals the huge, growing, tragic problem which Nazi fanaticism has forced upon Germany’s neighbors.” Referring to the action which the League is expected to take on the refugee question in January, the editorial asserts that as successful as McDonald has been he is compelled to recognize that the problem has now become political and that the refugee problem can only be dealt with at its source. The League Council, therefore, will be faced with an entirely different situation than in 1933, the editorial continues. It will have to think in terms of hundreds of thousands and consider the suggestion of making representations to Berlin.
The editorial continues:
“It is scarcely credible that the leaders of Germany can themselves remain much longer insensible to the movement of opinion in Europe and America or to the injury being done to German interests abroad.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
