Lieut. Col. Charles Kerr, chief whip of the National Liberal Party, today withdrew an assertion that plotters to unseat the government were mostly of the Jewish race after it had been branded “utterly fantastic and untrue” by sir Maurice Bloch, chairman of the Glasgow Jewish representative council. War minister Sir Leslie Hore-Belisha, himself a Jew, is chairman of the national liberals.
Challenging col. Kerr to substantiate or amend his allegation, made at the annual meeting of the Scottish Liberal National Association, sir Maurice had declared: “Col. Kerr owes it to his position to avoid unsupported, sweeping charges tending unfairly to bring prejudice against and to malign a whole people.”
In reply today, Col. Kerr stated: “I have been thinking very deeply about my speech last week in Glasgow and have come to the conclusion that I had no right whatever in my remarks concerning the communist and anti-God movements to refer to Jews. Doing so created a completely wrong impression and I now express sincere regret. I want to state emphatically that I am certain a vast majority of the Jewish people in this country is just as much against these activities as any other true, loyal citizens, among whom representatives of the Jewish people are not the least distinguished in many walks of life.”
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