Australian Labor Ministry Reported Unfriendly to Jewish Palestine Hopes

Rumors that the new Australian Federal Labor Ministry is definitely not sympathetic with Jewish aspirations in Palestine are current here. The feeling is based largely on the fact that eleven of the fourteen Ministers are avowedly observant Roman Catholics. It is recalled that on his elevation to the position of Prime Minister, J. H. Scullin was hailed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy as the “first Australian Roman Catholic Prime Minister.”

Efforts by the representative of the J. T. A. to secure an interview with Minister Scullin have been unsuccessful. Through Dr. W. Maloney, Federal Member for Melbourne in the House of Representatives, the J. T. A. submitted to the Prime Minister in writing its request for a statement. Mr. Scullin has since replied: “I cannot see my way to issue a statement setting forth my own views or the views of the Ministry on the Jewish people and their aspirations in regard to Palestine.”

During the Palestine disturbances of September last, the “Advocate,” the official Roman Catholic weekly of Victoria, carrying the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne (Rev. Dr. Mannix) published an editorial under the caption of “The Truth about Palestine” appealing to “all good Catholics” to discount the messages that were being published in the daily press.

After tracing at some length the events which led to the “notorious” Balfour Declaration, “dictated by the need of Jewish financial aid during the War,” the paper continued: “Nearly ten years ago, Cardinal Bourne, surely no critic of things British as a rule, called sharp attention to the manner in which the original inhabitants, Arab and Christian alike, were being expropriated by Jewish syndicates. The late Pope in one of his last allocutions protested against Jewish mistreatment of Catholics in Palestine and declared that the rule of the Turk was more just and equitable. What a travesty of Christianity is it to see the British authorities who presumably claim to be Christian, and nearly all the responsible papers in the British Empire, in their support of the Jews deliberately suppressing the essential facts and the real reasons for the outbreaks, and continuing to place more securely in the hands of a fanatically anti-Christian body of immigrants, the Holy Land with its Holy Places and sanctuaries and memorials of the Founder of Christianity. Could hypocrisy or inconsistency be more shameful?”