The position of the Jews in Germany and of those who are fleeing its jurisdiction, was a special subject of discussion in the House of Commons today, as it had been in the House of Lords last week.
George Lansbury, Labor M.P., suggested at today’s session, that the British government ask the League of Nations to take steps to deal with the problems raised by the flight of Jews from Germany.
Captain Anthony Eden, Under-secretary of State to the Foreign Office, replying for the government said that the proposal would be considered.
Major Harry Louis Nathan, also raised a question concerning the status of German Jews and the discriminations being practiced against them. In the debate which followed it was revealed that a report expected on this subject from the British Ambassador in Berlin had not yet been received, but that it was expected by the weekend. This delay, it was explained, was occasioned by the lack of details required to make a report of that kind fairly conclusive.
At this point, Barnett Janner interposed the suggestion that the report from the Ambassador should include particulars concerning the status of the Jews resident in Upper Silesia who are under special treaty protection. Captain Eden promised that this suggestion also would be considered.
Prime Minister J. Ramsay MacDonald, replying to the motion which had been submitted earlier by seventy M.P.’s for debate on the German situation, declared that pressing business made it impossible just now to fix a date. J. M. Morris pressed the premier to give Parliament an opportunity to express the strong feeling existing on all sides against the Jewish persecutions in Germany. MacDonald replied: “It is a matter of discretion. We are quite willing to leave the matter at the moment where it is.”
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.
