Now Editorial Notes

Members of the Greek Nazi organization, known as E. E. E., made physical attacks on Jews in Castoria, Greece, desecrating Jewish cemeteries, smashing windows in Jewish homes and shops, and wounding, among others, the son of the president of the Jewish community.

On that same day Premier Tsaldaris of Greece is reported to have said to the representatives of the Jewish community of Salonica that he esteemed the Jews for their virtues, their love of work and love of progress. He remarked:

“The Jews are always in the forefront of progress. They comprise a loyal element whose contribution is precious in the development of Greece.”

The virtues, love of work and love of progress that Premier Tsaldaris extolled in the Jews of Greece doubtless constituted the reasons why the Nazified Greeks attacked them. It is strange that while the Greek Premier speaks so highly in praise of the Jews, the Nazi-influenced Greeks are permitted to make brutal physical attacks on them.

Premier Tsaldaris is sufficiently powerful to stop the anti-Jewish outrages and to save his country from being discredited by the disgraceful antics of the Greek Nazis.

WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW

The Nazi Organ for the Rhineland, the West German Observer, writing of the anti-German boycott in the United States, say:

“It is to say the least not particularly intelligent of the Roosevelt government to tolerate the organization by the Jew Untermyer of a boycott against a friendly power, especially when that power is one of America’s best customers.”

This Nazi reasoning reveals the typical mentality of the Hitlerites, who fail to understand public opinion in a democratic country. They do not hesitate to brand the Roosevelt government as “not particularly intelligent,” even though the Roosevelt administration has had nothing whatever to do with the anti-German boycott. As a matter of fact, the Roosevelt administration has thus far given no public expression its attitude toward the shocking inhumanities committed in Naziland through racial and religious discrimination and persecution.

The boycott against German made goods and German series was organized in this country, as in numerous other countries in Europe, as an answer to the ruthless persecution of Jews, Catholics, Protestants, liberals and radicals by the Nazi government; to the burning of the books of authors who had given high prestige to Germany among the civilized nations; and to the Nazi menace to world peace.

The anti-German boycott in this country, as in other countries, is successful because it is supported not by the Jews, alone. In this country the anti-German boycott is aided by the American Federation of Labor and by other liberal Americans, regardless of race or creed. This is true also of other countries. Organized labor is thus expressing its abhorrence of the methods employed by the Nazi regime in suppressing organized labor and confiscating its property.

The Nazi-press fails to understand how the American Government “tolerates” the organization of “a boycott against a friendly power, especially when the power is one of America’s best customers.” The Hitlerites are making the mistake of believing that the mistake of believing that the American people are influenced only by material gains and advantages. They fail to realize that the American people have ideals that are not tinged by the so-called Dollar Diplomacy. It is but necessary to recall how the American people reacted when the Tsar’s government discriminated against a portion of the American people on religious grounds. The commercial treaty with Russia was abrogated for the sake of a principle. The Hitler government is defying world public opinion and the German people are paying the price for Hitler’s follies.