A blistering denunciation of the League of Nations and a warning that no treaty Nazi Germany signs is worth the paper it is written on was voiced by Samuel Untermyer, American and world boycott leader who returned in triumph from London yesterday, where he was elected president of the World Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League Council to Champion Human Rights.
Mr. Untermyer expressed complete satisfaction with the progress of the anti-Nazi boycott movement and declared he was certain that before “six months are over the boycott organization will, I believe, startle the world by demonstrating that an economic boycott, concentrated against a nation that has outraged and defied civilization, can be made an effective substitute for war. That is the experiment we have embarked on and in which fourteen nations have already joined. More are expected to join later.”
FLAYS SAAR PACT
The boycott leader was vehement in his denunciation of the treaty between France and Germany on the Saar question. “It appears,” he declared, “from inspired German press reports cabled from Rome that details of the agreement between France and Germany in the event that the Saar plebiscite favors Germany will not be available until tomorrow, when the committee of three reports to the Council of the League of Nations.
“Sufficient is, however, foreshadowed of the monstrous provisions affecting the Jewish position in the Saar to render it unthinkable that such abject ignoble surrender to Germany should be considered for one moment.
“In effect, the Jews and Catholics are to be left unmolested for one year during which they may liquidate their affairs under pressure and leave, or be turned over to the tender mercies of Hitlerism. Not even this grudging amnesty will apply to the unfortunate refugees who settled recently in the Saar in the delusion that the League offered some protection.
MINORITIES TO SUFFER
“If this brutal treasonable pact is approved, it will confirm the worst that has been said of the impotence of the League. It would have been better for civilization and the peace of the world if this travesty on international justice had never been born.
“Under this agreement, if confirmed, a similar fate awaits the
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
