It is a misconception to think that the British Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley are anti-Semitic, declares an editorial in the Sunday Dispatch, Lord Rothermere’s pro-Fascist organ.
Fear of anti-Jewish policies has naturally arisen as a result of German Nazi anti-Semitic policies, the editorial states, but Great Britain’s Black Shirts are modelled according to Italy’s pattern. In Italy Mussolini appointed the Jews Volpi and Jung ministers.
No Jew who is a loyal British subject need have the slightest misgiving, the editorial reassuringly concludes.
Simultaneously the Sunday Dispatch reports Mosley’s speech delivered yesterday, in which he taunted the Conservative worship of Disraeli, pointing to the fact that the latter was descended from Italian Jews.
But Conservatives owe gratitude to Disraeli, Mosley declared, for it was he who provided them with their only inspiration of the past hundred years. His Oriental mysticism keeps their imagination in the past, the Black Shirt leader charged, while “we look into the future.”
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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.