Digest of World Press Opinion

The Irish Times of Dublin, in an editorial on the Jewish situation in Germany, says:

Last week’s report, that a proposal to make peace between Germany and the Jews had been rejected by Herr Hitler, suggests that the Nazi movement is continuing its campaign against non-Aryans with unabated vigor. Little has been heard of anti-Jewish demonstrations in Germany for some months past, since it seems that the Ministry for Economics has frowned on any further attempts to interfere with the trade—and particularly with the banking institutions of the Reich; but the anti-Jewish propaganda is just as strong as ever it was.

Surely, there must be a limit to the Nazis’ folly. Already the hostility of Jews throughout the world is beginning to make itself felt in Germany. Possibly, Herr Hitler and his colleagues are indifferent to world opinion; but if they continue to prevent non-Aryans from earning a livelihood in their native country, they will forfeit the sympathy of every enlightened people.

SOME MOSLEY HIGHER MATHEMATICS

Admitting that the proportion of British Jews who fell as war heroes is larger than the proportion of other citizens of the Empire, John Beckett, one of the leaders of the British Fascist party, publishes in the Blackshirt, Mosley’s official organ, the following:

Enormous play has been made of the fact that a considerable number of Jews resident in this country served during the war. I am therefore greatly obliged to my colleague, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, for the following figures:

There are 62,000,000 white citizens of the Empire of which 975,000 were killed; a proportion of 1.65.

There are 420,000 Jews of whom 2,425 were killed; a proportion of 1-173.

Apart from congratulating the Jewish population on their good fortune in incurring a much slighter ratio of casualties than their fellows, there does not seem to be much call for comment on these figures. I have yet to hear of an reason why privileged guests, enjoying full rights and doing very well should not turn out and fight with their hosts when an attack comes. It is certainly stretching the long bow to suggest that because they did help to preserve the roof that sheltered them so comfortably they should afterwards have the right to interfere in their hosts’ domestic affairs.

CYPRUS COMPETES WITH PALESTINE

That Cyprus is becoming a competitor to Palestine in the export of citrus fruits is emphasized in a report in the Near East and India. The report states:

The export of early season oranges is now in full swing. A steamer of the German Levant Line is taking the fruit direct to Germany and Scandinavia. Cyprus oranges penetrate as far north as Stavanger, in Norway. The price is good at thirty-four shillings per thousand, in comparison with twenty-seven shillings at this time last year. The present shed accommodation at Famagusta Harbor is proving inadequate, and the construction of the new £8,000 shed proceeds very slowly.

It is being built with dressed stone, to harmonize with the old Venetian fortifications. The roof is supported on buttresses independent of the walls to allow for sinking. The large, rough oranges, unpopular in England, are being shipped to Yugoslavia. Curiously enough, Cyprus fruit pays a penny a case more landing charges in England than Palestinian.

RADIO SALES GAIN IN PALESTINE

The London Times, analyzing the exports of the British radio industry, reports:

In Palestine excellent progress is being made by British makers. In the first four months of this year, 3,246 sets were sold, compared with 3,701 in the whole of 1933. Other countries, however, are also going ahead, and America’s total sales are more than double those of Great Britain. The market in Palestine for radio sets generally is expanding rapidly owing to the trade recovery and to the arrival of Jewish immigrants, many of whom are comparatively prosperous and look upon a wireless set as a normal possession. When the new broadcasting station in Jerusalem is completed next year receiving sets will be required to a still greater extent.

It is probable that all-wave apparatus will be most in demand, for in addition to short and medium wave stations Jewish immigrants desire to keep in touch with the long-wave transmissions of such stations as Warsaw and Brasov. The path is not, of course, easy for British makers, but they have certain advantages over foreign rivals, not least of which is the fact that Great Britain is the largest purchaser of Palestine’s chief export, citrus fruit.

FINDS THAT JEWS ARE LIKE NEIGHBORS

Are Jews different? The Hebrew Union College Monthly, answering this question, says:

Maybe some Jews are, but the Jews we see daily are not essentially different from their neighbors. We don’t like to believe this because we’ve been brought up on a tradition of difference. But it was a tradition that was based on wish and not fact. The only real difference which the Jew reveals is a nervous self-consciousness which comes from being a persecuted minority. Remove the factor of anti-Semitism, and even this will disappear. As it is the Jew is a worker or a capitalist, an abstainer or a drunkard, a spendthrift or a hoarder, a moral or immoral person, just the way his neighbor is.

GLASGOW NEWS COMPARES JEWS AND SCOTS

The Glasgow Evening News, making a parallel between the Scotsman and the Jew, says:

The Jews were the Scots of Western Asia, and the Scots the Jews of North-West Europe. Both were threatened and persecuted. Had the English Edwards, Henry VIII, Mary Stuart, and the last two Stuart monarchs had their will of the Scots, they would have been enslaved, tortured, and finally dispersed.

At one time there were 30,000 Scots in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, and 30,000 or more Scots in business in Danzig and Poland. Their numbers and success aroused the jealousy of the German merchants, who obtained an edict against “Jews, Scots, and other vagabonds.” The strange story of the Scots in Poland is recounted by a Scotophile German, Fischer.

Thus were those enterprising peoples fellow-victims for a time in the same persecution, which, so far as the Scots were concerned, was largely on religious grounds. Most of the Scots merchants in Poland were Protestants; and Poland, after its capture by the Jesuits became the most bigotedly Roman Catholic country in Europe. In 1724, long after Christians elsewhere in Europe had ceased to kill each other for the love of God, several leading Protestants at Thorn were executed by Polish troops.