Will Stamp out Fascist Jew-baiting in England, Simon Tells Commons

The Government’s determination to stamp out Fascist Jew-baiting in England was reiterated today by Sir John Simon, Home Secretary, in a lenghty statement to the House of Commons.

Denying charges that police were discriminating in favor of the Fascists, he asserted that he would personally investigate all charges of bias. He disclosed that after a recent conference with the police commissioner it was decided to detail additional police to London’s East End districts, where the Fascists were most active.

The policemen have been charged with the duty of watching carefully for provocative conduct, Sir John revealed, urging “decent citizens” to assist the authorities by helping to identify the culprits responsible for incitement against the Jews.

He expressed agreement with Herbert Morrison, Labor leader, that the Fascist menace to the Jews was “potentially dangerous.” Mr. Morrison, one of the most powerful British Labor leaders and president of the London City Council, had interrupted a debate on Home Office estimates to make his first speech in the present Parliament, raising the Fascist issue.

Mr. Morrison assailed the Fascist leaders, declaring: “We cannot tolerate a situation in which these people take the law into their own hands and make others feel, when they go on the King’s Highway, that they are not free from molestation.”

Sir John replied that Mr. Morrison had raised a question of great importance, adding that he had not thought there was a widespread feeling of hostility against the Jews here but that undoubtedly it was true that in certain quarters of London there had developed ” a most disquieting movement.”

He described the difficulties of acting against the Fascists without infringing on the rights of free speech. There is no doubt that a man is breaking the law if he uses language of insult, abuse and provocation to such an extent that he is in fact encouraging people to be violent or to behave without respect for the rights of those he attacks,” the Home Secretary declared.

He admitted that there were cases of Jews having been molested during the Fascist anti-Jewish campaign, but denied police prejudice in favor of the Fascists.

Continuing, he attacked Fascism and Communism as constituting “a menace to the ideas of freedom,” adding that they might sometimes try to gain their ends by forcible methods. He concluded by expressing the belief that the debate in Commons would arouse public opinion and thus strengthen the hands of the police.