ALIEN PROBLEM

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1945, Page 7

ALIEN PROBLEM

JEWISH PROTEST

DEPUTATION WAITS ON R.S.A.

An exchange of opinions regarding the resolution carried unanimously at' the annual council of the N.Z.R.S.A. in Wellington in June which urged that aliens from Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Rumania, Italy and Japan be given two years to leave the country, taking with them assets of equivalent value to what they brought to the Dominion, took place last night when a-deputa-tion from the Jewish community waited on the executive of the Auckland R.S.A. The discussion lasted for two hours and was conducted in a most friendly spirit, the members of the deputation later being guests of the executive at supper.

Mr. Louis Phillips introduced the deputation, which consisted of the Rabbi, the Rev. A. Astor, Dr. M. G. Pezaro, and Messrs I. Meltzer, E. Barnett, A. Copeland, and Lawrence D. Nathan. All, with the exception of the Rabbi, were members of the R.S.A., and had served in the last war or the present one. Democratic Procedure Mr. A. P. Postlewaite, president of the R.S.A., who presided, explained that the decision of the N.Z.R.S.A. council had been reached by the most democratic methods. An attendance of over 200 delegates from the 96 branches of the association had unanimously supported the resolution. The R.S.A. was not opposed in any way to the Jewish community. On the contrary, several members of the Dominion Executive Committee and the Dominion President, Mr. B. J. Jacobs, for whom there was the very highest, regard throughout the country, belonged to that section of the population. Thousands of members of the R.S.A. were Jews. What the R.S.A. was concerned with was the rehabilitation of men who had been overseas fighting, and this was shown to have been prejudiced in many cases by the activities of aliens who had been in the country while our own men were absent on active service.

Mr. Astor, Mr. Meltzer, Dr. Pezaro and Mr. Lawrence Nathan addressed the executive on the effects of the R.S.A. resolution if put into operation, so far as the Jewish community was concerned. The point was stressed that in addition to rousing feelings of anti-Semitism, it would be un-British to deport Jews from the Dominion. The horrors through which the Jewish people had passed under the Hitler regime were recalled, and it was stated that while it was considered uniust to discriminate against the Jews, Germany would be no place for Jews for two or three generations. It was no longer their country. They had been deprived of their citizenship. "Not Directed Against Jews" During the exchange of views that followed, Mr. Phillips asked the chairman if the resolution -was not directed against the Jews, and Mr. Postlewaite gave a definite assurance that during the discussion at the R.S.A. council the Jews were not mentioned. The resolution referred to aliens from Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Rumania, Italy and Japan. There was never at any time thought, or intention, to discriminate against Jews.

Mr. A. Smith, a member of the executive, said he had not heard the Jews mentioned during their discussions. The point was that the R.S.A. was the guardian of the rights, welfare and-interests-of returned men. and where it could be established that their opportunities of rehabilitation had been impaired, it was the duty of the association to fight the cause of the returned man.

Mr. Postlewaite said the executive would consider the matters raised by the deputation in relation to any effect it might have as giving the impression of discrimination against the Jewish community.