While no comment on Mr. Earle’s Statement was forthcoming from the State Department at Washington, the New York World-Telegram, a Scripps-Howard newspaper, roundly scored the American diplomat in an editorial yesterday.
“If the American Minister to Austria is interfering in the racial and religious quarrels of that country, as reported, he will not last long,” the paper warned. “Minister Earle is quoted as saying that Austria will sacrifice the sympathy of America if she goes anti-Semitic.
“We believe it is true that a majority of Americans hate religious and racial persecution, whether such bigotry is practiced at home or abroad. It is equally true, however, that it is not the business of an American diplomat to pass judgment on the internal affairs of the country to which he is accredited,” the paper declares in part.
“As regards the anti-Semitic movement which threatens to spread from Germany to Austria, there is nothing to prevent Americans as individuals from thinking and doing about it as they please, even to the point of boycott. But such matters come within the proper function of the United States government and its diplomats only when the foreign government violates the international obligations or the rights of an American citizen.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
