Coty Declaration on Jews Denies Race Bias, Poses Stand As Against ‘socialism’

The declaration of Francois Coty, millionaire parfumeur and publisher, that he is not anti-Semitic, was prominently featured here in L’Ami du Peuple, one of his newspapers, and drew the observation from the Paris Haint, influential Yiddish newspaper, that it was not to be taken seriously in view of “the unpopularity at the present moment, of anti-Semitism in France.”

M. Coty, who recently lost a libel suit brought against him by a group of Jewish veterans of the French Army, has decided to continue his campaign in altered form, according to belief. The Haint points out that M. Coty “never had (Henry) Ford’s earnestness, either in his anti-Semitism nor in his repentancy, of which we still see very little.”

FIGHT AGAINST SOCIALISM

In his declaration published in L’Ami du Peuple, M. Coty asserts that his fight is against socialism, “whether Jewish or Christian.”

“Our doctrine is unalterable,” he states in explanation. “The entire Coty press will maintain the same policy and the same principles, and with the same vigor combat socialism in all its forms, whether Jewish or Christian.

“The religious question does not carry weight with us. We merely defend religious ideas in themselves because we consider them necessary for the moral and material development of human society. It is no business of ours to determine between Israelites, instead of letting the Israelites do this themselves. We are not entitled to interfere here just as we are unentitled to interfere in church matters.

“We know that there exist orthodox and modern, Zionist and anti-Zionist Israelites. We know that even among the Zionists, there is a division between those wishing the Jewish nation, a Jewish home and a Jewish International.

“We liberal Frenchmen are prepared to recognize, under any name, a Jewish state, a Jewish fatherland, with the same loyalty, under the one imperative condition that it not be a disguised body working for marxism and that the interests of France’s culture and civilization be not endangered.”