News Brief

The “Day,” commenting on the statements with reference to the Jews made by M. Lavergne, declared:

“We are accustomed to government anti-Semitism in Eastern and Central Europe. Anti-Semitism in Anglo-Saxon countries is a rare occurrence.

“We do not venture to say that there is no anti-Semitism in England, Canada, Australia and America. We have more than sufficient anti-Semitism in these places. But anti-Semitism there is social and only recently economic. Of political anti-Semitism in Anglo-Saxon lands, little has been heard until the rise of the anti-Semitic political movement in Canada.

“Some time ago, the Mayor of Montreal permitted himself a number of anti-Semitic observations which aroused the indignation of Jewry in the Dominion. And now the deputy speaker of the Canadian Parliament, Armand Lavergne, supports the Goglu publications in their libels against the Jewish people.

“True, the Mayor of Montreal and the deputy speaker of Parliament are French, but still they are Canadians and leaders of an Anglo-Saxon land.

“In an Anglo-Saxon land where political leaders suddenly become anti-Semites, there is but one recourse; to appeal to public opinion. Public opinion, even if it is slightly tinged with anti-Semitism, is still ashamed of openly acknowledging anti-Semitism. A great tradition of ‘fair play’ still operates. And if one is able to show that this tradition is infringed upon by anti-Semitism it is not difficult to evoke repudiation of the anti-Semitic move.

“This is what Canadian Jewry must undertake to do.

“We understand that the Jewish community has begun to send protests to the central government. Good!

“The Canadian government, conservative though it be, will have to take into consideration aroused public opinion. The first action of the central government must be to repudiate the accusations made by the deputy speaker. And that is the principal thing.

“In this eventuality the utterances of M. Lavergne become nothing more than the ill-willed attack of a foolish person upon a group of loyal Canadian citizens.

“It is importont that this be done, not alone in the interests of Canadian Jewry, but also in the interests of the much larger group of Jews residing in the neighboring country of the United States,” the editorial concludes.