World Press Digest

The Near East and India, semi-official organ of the British Colonial Office, carries the following interesting report on Palestine Potash:

Preliminary steps are being taken for the marketing of the shares of Palestine Potash, Ltd. It is proposed to make very shortly an issue of five and a half per cent preference shares which will have certain participating rights. I anticipate that the issue will be considerably oversubscribed.

Palestine Potash Ltd., it may be recalled, was formed in 1920 to acquire from the government of Palestine a concession for the extraction of potash, bromide, and other salts from the Dead Sea. It has an issued capital of £397,000 in 370,000 redeemable preference shares of £1 and 540,000 ordinary shares of 1s. each.

NEW IMMIGRATION THROUGH ITALIAN PORT

The London Times, speaking on Jewish immigration to Palestine, gives the following figures:

Jewish emigration through Trieste in 1934 amounted to 17,371, compared with 21,183 in the record year 1933. Of the former 7,050 were Polish and 4,326 German citizens and 1,215 mostly of Russian origin, bearing League passports.

The rest came from Baltic or Central European States. Those classed as capitalists numbered 2,125, exceeding by 194 the record figure of 1933. Jewish emigration through Trieste represents about one-half of the total authorized for admission to Palestine.

INSANE NATIONALISM AND POLISH JEWRY

The Intermountain Jewish News of Denver, Col., carries the following editorial:

The few bright spots in the day’s news of world Jewry—such as that pertaining to Palestine and possibly Biro-Bidjan—throws into somber contrast the great proportion that makes one day more dismal than the next. The latest news to make the heart of the reader weary is the extraordinary conference held last week in Poland.

Leaders of Polish Jewry sent out a plea for help—expecting little, by their tone. One fifth of all the Jews in the world are there; they face complete economic collapse. They have been reduced to the extent of trying to gain away the support world Jewry is throwing into the battle against Hitlerism. “We suffer, too,” they cry. “We suffered long before Hitler, and there are millions more of us.”

The millions of dollars poured into Europe through drives have been sunk into what seems a bottomless pit. The flow of gold has fed and clothed millions, but there has been no change, conditions are as bad, perhaps worse, than they were fifteen years ago. What can we do? How can we stop the insane nationalism that picks, in every country it overshadows, the Jews as its victims?

HOLDS HOPE FOR DOCTORS IN REICH

The Catholic Times of London, speaking of the fate of Jewish doctors in Germany, says editorially:

The Nazi persecution of the Jews is altogether objectionable, and we have frequently protested against it. At the same time we must be just, and recognize that it has not yet gone so far as it might have done, which gives grounds for hoping that it may cease.

Figures were published in Berlin on Monday which show that, of 6,486 Jewish doctors in Germany before the Nazis come to power, 5,900 are still practicing, although 1,667 have been refused permission to act as panel doctors, and have only what private practice they can secure.

The number of doctors who emigrated is 578. Those still licensed to act as panel doctors number 3,461, or 11.4 of the total panel. As would be expected, the capital has a higher percentage of Jewish doctors than the rest of the country, being as high as forty-three per cent.

The significance of the anti-Jewish movement is not in the number of Jews dismissed but in the menace for the future—unless the persecution is ended.

WORLD CYNICAL OVER SAAR VOTE

The American Jewish {SPAN}Outloo#{/SPAN} of Pittsburgh, comments on the results of the Saar plebiscite:

The outcome of the Saar election is not surprising. Even if the great majority of the people had not been German, the terrorism, the money spent, and the propaganda would have carried the election.

Hitler is jubilant at the ninety per cent vote cast for him, but a cynical world is much more interested in the ten per cent of von Steubens, de K##bs, Schurzes, Goethes and Lessings who voted against him. The lot of the liberal will now be intolerable in spite of government promises. The League of Nations must, soon act if it is not to degenerate into merely a League of Nations.