Nazi Boycott Protest Reported Winning Backing of Mexican Government

Walter Zechlin, German Minister to Mexico, has protested to the government here against the anti-German boycott which he alleged is being carried on in this country by the Israelite Chamber of Commerce. Herr Zechlin contended that the action of the Israelite chamber violates the sovereignty of the Mexican government.

The minister’s protest, which German circles here term an “alarm signal,” explains that objection is not made against an individual’s rights to boycott, but against an organization’s prerogative to follow such a course. The boycott is estimated to have caused a ten percent decrease in German trade throughout Mexico within the last three months.

The Mexican government’s official reply to Herr Zechlin’s protest has not been made available up to the present, but it was learned unofficially that it indorses the German stand and has notified the German minister that the matter has been turned over to the proper authorities with the instructions that “no entity has the right to declare a boycott.”

During the last week anti-Jewish propaganda in Mexico City has been intensified following protests against the boycott made to the Confederation of Chambers of Commerce by local German organizations. The Confederation has launched an investigation of the whole affair.

Anti-Jewish propaganda is spreading into the states in the interior as a result of a campaign launched by an organization known as “Confia,” of which Rafael Sanchez Lira is the head. One of the most recent developments is a note addressed to the government here by the Industrialists’ Union in the State of Aguas Calientes asking that heavy taxes be imposed on foreign merchants, and specifying Jewish traders. The note demanded that taxes be raised from 400 to 500 percent and that no foreigners be permitted to open new business establishments in Aguas Calientes.