GERMAN GOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 140, 10 December 1935, Page 8

GERMAN GOODS

A BOYCOTT URGED

MONEY USED FOR ARMS

A demonstration of protest against Nazi persecutions recently held in Hyde Park in connection with the British Non-sectarian Anti-Nazi Council had already begun and speakers were addressing small crowds from half a dozen platforms when thousands of people from the East End and other parts of London arrived in procession via Hyde Park Corner (says the "Manchester Guardian"). Nearly all the marchers were young, the great proportion were Jews, and many men wore war medals. Scores of policemen shepherded them, and at the end came more policemen in several police vans. It was said this was because the council had received anonymous warnings of trouble. There was no trouble, however. The political parties in Parliament were represented by Miss Eleanor Rathbone, Mr. Attlee, Mr. Vyvyan Adams, Mr. Barnett Jaiiner, Dr. W. J. O'Donovan, Lord Marley, and Lord Kinnoull. Other speakers were Sir Walter Citrine, and two members of the London County Council, Mr. M. H. Davis and Mr. Dan Frankel. MRS. DESPARD. Mrs. Despard, who at the age of ninety-one had made the journey from Belfast to speak at the demonstration, said the grave trouble in Germany as she saw it was that the workers were split into sects and sections, instead of recognising that they belonged to common humanity. Mr? Attlee declared: "We are not here to draw an indictment against the whole German nation. We are not here to ask our Government to take particular action. We are here to rally the forces of public opinion against a foul thing that has come into the world. ; The kind of thing that is taking place in Germany and elsewhere is destructive to civilisation and will lead : the world to war and destruction. It is right that we who still stand for freedom should fight it." Professor J. B. S. Haldane said the demonstration was not anti-German but anti-Nazi. One of his main points was that the 40 per cent, reduction in German wages since Hitler came into-power meant that the products of sweated labour were competing with those of British labour in this country and in all the markets of the world. "Every day, therefore, that Hitler remains in power means more unemployment for workers who cannot compete with slave labour. It is slave labour people who work in the German labour camps and get a wage of 3d a week or, if they are exceptionally good, 6d a week." "The second reason for supporting the boycott," he said, "is that every penny you pay for German goods goes to buy material for war. Next time you see a woman wearing German goods tell her she is paying for a bomb to blow her children to bits. In the interests of your own pockets and skins I ask you' to support this resolution." ' . HOLIDAYS IN GERMANY. ' Miss Eleanor Rathbone, M.P., said she had lately noticed a rather dangerous tendency here to forget, ignore, and even to condone the acts Of the Nazi regime. "We must never let ourselves forget," she said, "that the triumph of dictatorship or aggression in any country means a threat to liberty in every country and the menace of aggression." Some of her friends said, "Let's make friends with the Germa#s and let them know that we think they are making a mistake." She thought that morally and politically it was a great mistake to take that line. -It meant applying to Germany as a State principles that we should reject in dealing with individuals. "If you saw a man pulling off the wings of a lark, would you, if you could help it, deal with him or eat with him? Would you not treat him like a leper? An immense body of public opinion is secretly fighting against Nazi persecution, though the majority of German people when asked to vote secretly voted- for Hitler."

Miss Rathbone said that she had been recently told by the principal of one of the biggest technical schools in London that the most .popular class was the German class, because so many people were looking forward to going to Germany for their next sum!mer holidays. She thought it was deplorable that British, people should travel in Germany since when they became in a sense guests of the German Government.

At the end the demonstration carried a resolution calling on every British rights by refusing to enter into any business relationship with German nationals and to decline to purchase citizen to defend and champion human any German goods that might be offered until complete civil and religious liberty had been restored in Germany.