The European executive of the World Jewish Congress yesterday criticized the British Government’s decision not to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Genocide. At the same time it called upon the Government to enact legislation that would apply “the full force of existing law” against the existing National Socialist and fascist movements in this country.
Lady Reading and Israel Sieff, co-chairmen of the WJC’s European executive, stated in a letter to the Times of London that the decision against ratification of the anti-genocide convention had given “too little consideration to the danger of how the Government’s policy may be interpreted abroad, particularly in those countries which, to this very day, have to grapple with the problem of neo-Nazism, racial hatred and anti-Semitism.”
“From our experience,” they stated, “we know that the activities of the Nationalist Socialist Party in Britain come as a shock to people abroad, not only damaging the reputation of this country but, first and foremost, giving aid to Mazi groups in countries where they represent a mere ‘lunatic fringe’ or a negligible quantity.”
An effort to enact legislation curbing fascist activities here, the WJC leaders declared, “would pay substantial dividends to Britain’s reputation abroad.”
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