World Protests Against Persecutions Spreading; England, France, Canada, Mexico

The dedication of the new premises of the Anglo-Palestine Club here, was made the occasion of a powerful protest against the treatment of the Jews in Germany. Lord Robert Cecil, who has held important posts in British Cabinets, and repeatedly represented it at the League of Nations, was the guest of the evening and officiated in the unveiling of a portrait of the late Lord Balfour. Talking on the German situation, he declared that he had been assured that day by the German Ambassador that the reports of atrocities were exaggerated. Moreover, the German Ambassador had added that the disturbances have already ceased. Commenting on this statement, Lord Cecil, addressing the members of the Club, rejected the excuse that the atrocities were due to a state of revolution in Germany, and could be justified by it. He declared that he expected that a cultured nation like the German, would not descend to the depths to which they have actually descended. He went on to say that such things could occur, testified to the urgent necessity for a national Jewish existence, so that Jews, like England, as a nation, might intervene on behalf of their Jewish nationals when occasion arose. He drew an analogy between the successful British intervention in the case of the four arrested Englishmen in Russia. “In the case of Jews,” said Lord Cecil, “Jews would be able to exercise only indirect pressure in such circumstances. Actual corporate Jewish action would be impossible because Jews were of different nationalities and their Jewishness would have to come after their respective citizenships.” History had shown that nations which oppressed the Jews, he proclaimed, concluding his address, soon realized their mistake.

Mr. James de Rothschild, who presided, also described the sufferings of Jews in Germany, a country which they had so well served.

Mrs. E. C. Dugdale, a niece of the late Lord Balfour, urged that British Jews should not imagine that they were unable to exercise sufficient influence to put a stop to the German excesses. On the contrary, British Jews could arouse the world’s moral opinion and become a powerful leader in the situation.