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Formation of Units of Polish Jews in British Army Will Be Suggested to War Minister

April 23, 1944
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War Minister Sir James Grigg will be asked in the House of Commons on Tuesday whether he will consider the formation of a Jewish unit in the British Army composed of Jewish soldiers who cannot serve in the Polish armed forces because of anti-Semitism, it was learned here today.

The National Council for Civil Liberties today announced that in connection with the anti-Semitism in the Polish Army in British, it will hold a public meeting in one of the largest theatres in London under the slogan “End Race Persecution on British Soil.” Another demand of the meeting will be “Transfer Polish Jews to the British Forces.” The meeting, which will have members of Parliament among the principal speakers, will take place on May 14, the announcement said.

The New Statesment and Nation, influential British liberal weekly, today carries a front-page three-colum editorial in which it criticizes Foreign Minister Anthony Eden for his statement in Commons to the effect that he cannot intervene again for the transfer of Jewish soldiers from the Polish Army to the British. “The life of the Jews in the Polish Army, which seems scarcely less anti-Semitic that in a division of the Nazi Elite troops, is intolerable,” the article says.

The article points out that the British Government has the obligation as well as the right to demand that the powers given by Britain to its Polish allies are not abused. The refusal by the Polish Government to transfer the Jews from the Polish armed forces may lead to really grave and damaging incidents among the Allied armies when the offensive against the European continent begins, the editorial says.

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