Wheeler Denies Saying England Fighting “a Jewish War”

Senator Burton K. Wheeler, isolationist leader, last night denied in Washington that he had said that England was fighting “a Jewish war” and that America will not permit itself “to be brought into a war of revenge in behalf of the Jews.” The charge against Senator Wheeler was made earlier in the day by Beverly Baxter, Conservative member of the British Parliament, prior to his embarking on the Dixie Clipper to return to London.

“Mr. Wheeler has some strange idea,” said Mr. Baxter, carefully choosing his words and speaking slowly for the reporters, “that England is fighting a Jewish war. He told me that right across America there was a determination not to be brought into a war of revenge in behalf of the Jews. When I asked the Senator to identify the Jews who brought England into the war, he was unable to say. He added he had many friends among the Jews, and did not approve of the German treatment of Jews. I frankly found it difficult to follow his logic in this respect.”

Senator Wheeler, informed of Mr. Baxter’s statement, gave the following version of his meeting with Baxter: “He asked me if I thought that England was run by Jews. I told him I had never heard such a statement but that unfortunately a trend of anti-Semitic feeling was growing in the United States. Its unfortunate, but its true. He asked why. I said: ‘Well, a lot of people believe that Jews are trying to get us into the war’.”