Jewish Barbers in England Face Sunday Closing Problem

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

A situation similar to that prevailing in the United States is now facing the English Jews in the barber trade, following the recent adoption by parliament of a bill requiring the closing of barber shops on Sunday.

The question was taken up recently at the meeting of the Board of Jewish deputies where Mr. Landa asked Col Charles Waley-Cohen, President of the Law and Parliamentary Committee, whether the Committee had considered the Bill recently passed in the House of Commons for the closing of all barbers’ shops on Sundays and whether his Committee had considered any steps for the safeguarding of the position of the Jewish barbers.

He further wanted to know whether the Committee had considered the Bill prohibiting the adoption of children of alien parentage. He also desired to know Col. Waley-Cohen’s opinion about the Home Secretary’s reply to a question in the House of Common-in which he used the term of “British-born aliens.”

Colonel Waley-Cohen said that as regards the Barbers’ Bill it was an important matter which had to be given full consideration. The Bill regarding the adoption of alien children, he was afraid, could not be profitable dealt with. As for the Home Secretary’s attitude towards aliens, he would like to point out, he stated, that the present Home Secretary had taken more trouble to understand the alien question than any of his predecessors. The attacks on this point made against the Home Secretary were not worthy of the Jewish Community, he stated.

Mr. Lucien Wolf in moving the adoption of the Joint Foreign Committee’s report said that things in Poland and Roumania were at present quiescent. There are disturbing symptoms, he said. The new Roumanian Government, for instance, while more friendly towards the Jews, is adopting an attitude of intimidating the Jews against making complaints to the League of Nations. The position in that country must be carefully watched, he said.

In Norway, the Shechita problem is being satisfactorily treated and the Joint Foreign Committee is confident of satisfactory results, Mr. Wolf stated.

With regard to the Numberus Clausus Law in Hungary. Mr. Lucien Wolf said that experience of every day showed how desirable it was to relax no effort to bring about the abolition of this law. “It is a severe tax on the Jewish Communities of Western Europe to have to help hundreds of Jewish Hungarian students who have to get their education at foreign Universities. It is necessary to insist that the Council of the League of Nations should compel Hungary to modify the law not later than September,” he stated.