NEW WORLD ORDER FOR JEWS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 13

NEW WORLD ORDER FOR JEWS

British Pledge in the first public declaration on the Jewish question since the outbreak of the war, .Mr. Arthur Greenwood, member without portfolio in the British War Cabinet, assured the Jews of the United States that when victory was achieved an effort would be made to found a new world order based on the ideals of “justice and peace.” states the “New York Times.” Mr. Greenwood, who is Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party, declared that in the new world the “conscience of civilized humanity would demand that the wrongs suffered by the Jewish people in so many countries should be righted.” He added that

after the war an opportunity would be given to Jews everywhere to make a “distinctive and constructive contribution’ 'in the rebuilding of the world. The message was delivered to Dr. Stepheu S. Wise, chairman of the executive committee of the World Jewish Congress, by Rabbi Maurice L. Perlzweig, chairman of the British section of the congress. Intention to Kight Wrongs. Comparing the statement with the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Dr. Wise declared that in a sense it had “wider and farther reaching implications,” as it dealt with the status of Jews throughout the world. He said that Mr. Greenwood’s message could be interpreted as a statement of England’s firm intention to help right the wrongs which Jews havu suffered and continue to suffer today because of Hitler’s “disorder and lawlessness.” Mr. Greenwood, sending the Jews of America a message of “encouragement and warm good wishes,” wrote: — “The tragic fate of the Jewish victims of Nazi tyranny has, as you know, filled us with a deep emotion. The speeches of responsible statesmen in Parliament and at the League of Nations during the last seven years have reflected the horror with which the people of this country have viewed the Nazi relapse into barbarism. “The British Government sought again to secure some amelioration of the lot of persecuted Jewry both in Germany itself and in the countries which were infected by the Nazi doctrine of racial hatred. Today the same sinister power which has trampled on its own defenceless minorities, and byfraud and force has temporarily robbed many small peoples of their independence, has challenged the last stronghold of liberty in Europe. “When we have achieved victory, as we assuredly will, the nations will have the opportunity of establishing a new world order based on the ideals of justice and peace. In such a world it is our confident hope that the conscience of civilized humanity would demand that the wrongs suffered by the Jewish people in so many countries should be righted. “Iu the rebuilding of civilized society after the war, there should and will be a real opportunity for Jews everywhere to make a distinctive contribution; and all men of goodwill must assuredly hope that in new Europe the Jewish people, in whatever country they may live, will have freedom and full equality before the law with every other citizen.” i In an interview at the Hotel Astor, Rabbi Perlzweig declared he was certain Mr. Greenwood “speaks for England.” There is a clear realization, he added that freedom and emancipation for the Jewish people are tied up with emancipation and freedom for people everywhere. The message, Rabbi Perlzweig remarked, was the subject of earnest consideration by the British Government. “This is a declaration on behalf of the whole ■world,” he observed. “Here the British Government expresses clearly what it hopes will take place after the war is won.”