Now– Editorial Notes

From Asheville, N. C., comes the news that Federal Judge E. Yates Webb signed an order directing the United States Marshal to take possession of all property of the Galahad Press, Inc., publisher of Liberation, the organ of the Silver Shirts of America. The Galahad Press admits insolvency and “avers that it should be declared bankrupt”. William Dudley Pelley is the editor of Liberation and head of the Silver Shirts.

On the eve of the Congressional investigation into the Nazi activities in the United States, the organ of the Silver Shirts declares itself bankrupt. It now admits its financial insolvency. Its policy was such that it was morally bankrupt before it started on its campaign of rabid anti-Semitism. It tried to serve Hitlerism in the United States by spreading the alien poison of hate and bigotry. Now that the Nazi agents in this country have received instructions to watch their step and to conceal the evidence of their activities, their allies are going into hiding, and are rushing away from the sinking ship.

THE ARLOSOROFF TRIAL

The Arlosoroff trial in Jerusalem is attracting worldwide attention among the Jews. Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, one of the most brilliant Zionists, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and most popular leader of the labor movement in Palestine, was murdered as he was walking with his wife along the seashore in Tel Aviv. Three Revisionists, Abraham Stavsky, Zvi Rosenblatt and Aba Achimeier, were arrested and charged with the murder of the Jewish labor leader.

The assassination of Arlosoroff has stirred Palestinian Jewry as no other crime stirred it before It has released a flood of passions and political bitterness. The most fantastic stories have been circulated by the two opposing camps. The most venomous and vicious accusations have been hurled at the leaders.

Whether the accused Revisionists are guilty of the dastardly crime or not there is no doubt that the leaders of the Revisionist organization have had no hand in it, and could not have sanctioned it. The character of the leaders is well known to the Jewish world. Among these leaders are men who have devoted themselves as sincerely and as unselfishly in behalf of the restoration and rehabiltation of Eretz Israel as any other of the outstanding Zionist leaders. They differ in their ideology of the restoration of Palestine, but terrorism cannot be part of any Jewish program in Palestine or olsewhere. Terrorism is the one thing that would defeat Jewish aspirations in Palestine.

It is to be hoped that the trial in Jerusalem will be fair and that the guilty individuals, whoever they may be, Jews or Arabs, will be punished. This is not, and should not be made, a political issue.

The fact that the accused were cheered by the crowd as they entered the court room may indicate that public opinion in Jerusalem regards them as innocent of the crime with which they are charged. That a fund is being raised to enable the accused Revisionists to have an adequate defense is quite proper. But it is very strange that at this moment, at the opening of the trial, a conference of Palestinian Rabbis, members of the Mizrachi, and General Zionists, should issue a call, through Chief Rabbi Kook, appealing for funds for the defense of the accused in the Arlosoroff trial, and adopt a resolution for the proclamation of a general fast day during which prayers be offered for the accused in the hope that they be adjudged not guilty.

Any unwise attempt to create a Jewish political issue in connection with this trial may have unfortunate consequences. The Jewish leaders of every faction in Palestine should realize the grave danger in magnifying things and events for the sake of momentary political advantages that might be gained by one group over another. Jewish Palestine cannot afford to play with such dynamite.