THE JEWISH REGIMENT

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 114, 10 November 1917, Page 3

THE JEWISH REGIMENT

CONFLICTING OPINIONS'.

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) ' •_ ■ • LONDON, 4th-September. I The announcement in the Gazette that the title "The Jewish Regiment" had been decidea upon for the porps which, is-being raised to meet a wish in certain quarters that Jews should be organised for the war, has caused a considerable amount of controversy. \ Lt.-Coi- J. H. Patterson/ D.5.0., of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, who establishedand commanded the Zion Mule Corps in Gallipoli, has been appointed to' command the Ist Battalion, and already there has been a. good deal of volunteering. The difference of opinion as .to the title was evidently widespread, for a deputation, headed by Lord Swaithling and Mr. Sebag Montefiore, waited upon Lord I Derby and requested that, the name j Should be changed. It was stated that ■ there were^ 40,000 Jews already serving in the British Army, not as Jews but as j British citizens,' and it-was felt that to! form a special regiment for Jews wae invidious. Lord Derby agreed- to consider the matter, and is stated to have I promised that the "Jewish. Regiment" should be abandoned in favour of another title. • The'organisers were very much upset By tne announcement. "All" the glamour, all the inspiration, has now gone out of the idea," said one of' them. 'It will practically kill the regiment to call it the, '—th-Middlesex' or some such, title." It ' had been suggested that the Jewish Kegi- j ment. might- fittingly be employed iij , Palestine and take part in the redemption ' of the Holy Land. / The decision about the title has caused some excitement in the foreign quarters j of Kast London. A few weeks.ago the Russians there, -who number many thousands, were given the option of returning to Russia or of serving in the British Army. They had to make up their minds by 9th August, and the announcement of the formation : of .a special Jewish Regiment led a considerable number of them to elect to serve with their co-religionists in the British Army rather than go to Russia. This is only one of many side currents of the question. ' .