A suggestion by a Government party member, Morris Kentridge, that South Africa liberalize its immigration laws resulted in an attack on Jews in Parliament yesterday.
Kentridge, who is active in Zionist affairs here, pointed out that South Africa needed European immigration, and criticized as short-sighted the policy of closing the country to all immigration. He urged, at the same time, that Prime Minister Smuts, who is going to London soon, use his influence to secure the opening of Palestine to Jews.
Kentridge was assailed by Nationalist deputies led by Dr. D.F. Malan. Malan raised the question of Germans who are still interned, declaring that if the Government punished Germans as Germans, Jews should be deported because they are Jews. Deputy M.S. Bremer said that history would stand aghast not at the mistreatment of Jews in Germany, but at the postwar treatment of the German people.
A Nationalist deputy named Leroux urged Jews to desist from advocating increased immigration, as “this caused increased anti-Semitism,” while another Nationalist, S.D. Becker, charged that “Jews had grown fat at the expense of Afrikaners.”
Deputy T.J. Haworth of the United (Government) Party denounced the Nationalist deputies’ anti-Semitism, citing Jewish contributions to the South African war effort and pointing out that the Nationalist deputies remained neutral.
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