Protest Movement Against Nazis Continues Unabated

The English people still refuse to acquiesce in the existence of the Nazi terror, and continue to protest against it in every way that is open to them. The press, from London to Glasgow, still publishes vigorous denunciations and observers here accept the published expressions in the English press as a barometer and an index to the feelings of the British people. The protests which were uttered in the House of Commons and the House of Lords—protests which frightened the Nazis into requests for face-saving apologies—have not been the last. Nor, it is evident, do these demands that Nazi persecution cease emanate only from Anglo-Jewish sources. Gentile is no less indignant than Jew, Protestant no less than Catholic, the Anglican Church leaders no less than the non-conformist churches. Ministers out of office, no less than those in, have joined in the demand that Germany revoke the clauses of the “cold pogrom” and end its semi-official reign of terror.

The metropolitan and provincial press is filled with editorials condemning the Hitlerites and their terror, and the rare letters attempting to justify the Nazi regime are being answered by floods of letters attacking the outrages against the Jews and calling the Nazis “insane”, “barbarous”, and “medieval”.

ALL PARTIES JOIN

Resolutions against the Hitler regime have been adopted by local divisions of Conservatives, Liberals, Laborites as well as Communists, all over England. Many local Councils (boards of Aldermen) have adopted similar resolutions.

A series of great protest meetings have been held in practically every important city in the British Isles and even in the rural districts. The speakers at these meetings were mainly non-Jews and represented every denomination of the clergy, the learned professions, the business world and the national and local officials.

Typical of these meetings was the great protest meeting recently held at Glasgow. It was arranged by a committee which, according to the Glasgow press, was “remarkable in its representation of the varied interests of the community.” The Lord Provost of Glasgow, A. B. Swan, presided. Among the speakers were Lord Maclay, Sir Robert Wilson, Sir Robert Stewart, Professor Adam Barr, and the Right Reverend J. R. Darbyshire, Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway. Also present were representatives of the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church of Scotland.

THE ADOPTED RESOLUTION

In his speech the Lord Provost called attention to the fact that the meeting had not been called by Jews but by the responsible people of the city, who felt that they should protest in the name of humanity against the treatment accorded the Jews in Germany. He noted the fact that 12,000 Jews had given their lives for Germany in the World War.

At the meeting held in Newcastle, presided over by the Lord Mayor, Dr. J. W. Leach, the press noted that “not one of the ten speakers on the platform was a Jew—a definite indication that recent events in Germany have created indignation in all circles.”

AN HISTORIC OCCASION

Similar meetings have been held recently in Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Chicester, Hendon, Sunderland, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Bradford and many other communities. At Birmingham, the Bishop of Birmingham (Dr. E. W. Barnes) and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham (Dr. T. L. Williams) appeared on the same platform for the first time in the history of the city.

The University of Oxford and the London School of Economics held meetings and adopted resolutions, protesting “against the savage and merciless attacks upon the Jews of Germany.”

Major Walter Elliot, the Minister of Agriculture, at a meeting of the Primrose League, condemned the persecution of the Jews in Germany and said, “Disraeli was a Jew by race and blood, and a man who never drew back or apologized for either his name or nature. In these days, when nations are hunting that race, let us remember that it is a mark of weakness to persecute others.”