ANTI-SEMITIC DRIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1937, Page 13

ANTI-SEMITIC DRIVE

DEVELOPMENTS IN POLAND.

Considerable concern is felt in circles friendly to the Poles here at the growing signs of anti-Semitism in Poland (writes the London correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor”). The latest of the long series of moves in this direction is the decision of the Polish Medical Association to .exclude all Jews, and of the Polish Lawyers’ Association to adopt measures designed to make it almost iinpossible for a Jewish lawyer to follow his profession. In both cases there was an overwhelming majority for the proposals. The same sort of thing is going on in the political sphere. Thus only Jews who have become Polonised can be admitted to membership in the new National Unity Organisation, founded early this year by Col. Adam Koc (pronounced Kotz). BID FOR RIGHT BACKING.

In political circles in Warsaw, the exclusion of the Jews from the National Unity Organisation is: explained as a bid for the support of. the Right in building up the new party. It. "is hinted that when sufficient individual members of the Right-wing groups have been induced to join Colonel Koc's party, a way will be found to modify the anti-Jewish bias disclosed by the Colonel’s announcement to th^, press on April 20. It is pointed out. in justification, that Colonel Koc is forming an essentially national movement. While he does not seek to suppress other parties. he wants to win recruits from all of them on a purely national basis with a view io building up a Polish counterpart to the. National Go\ein-j meat in Britain. From this point of view, it is claimed, he is only putting the Jews on a par with other national minorities in Poland. Those that have ceased to claim racial privileges as .lews, Germans and Ukrainians and who regard themselves as 100 per cent. Polish tiro eligible for membership of the National Unity Organisation. But in Colonl Koo’s view, those who have not surrendered these privileges cannot reasonably claim to be admitted anymore than Poles can be expected to participate in the Zionist movement. There are more than 3.0i)i),i)0() Jews in Poland, of whom probably about 2 or 3 per cent, are eligible for mem bership of the National Unity Organisation on the basis oi this definition. The remainder, although not by anv means all Zionists, cling fast to their Jewish racialism, as well as to the Jewish religion. This dual aspect of Judaism is held by many observers both here and in Poland to be largely responsible for (.ho persecution to which the Jews ate at present subject in so many

countries of Europe. In a nationalistic age. the Jews insist on the privileges of a racial minority together with the rights of the majority. They want to have it both ways with the result that they have it neither way. Poland’s Jewish problem has boon intensified since the decline in migration facilities set in 1929. This is one

of the reasons Poland has begun to take a deep interest, in colonies and mandates. During his visit to London last, year, Joseph Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, made representations to Anthony- Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, on the subject of Jewish immigration into Palestine, where considerably more than half the total immigrants came from Poland. The possibility that, this door is to be partially closed in the near future a 3 a result of the findings of the

Royal Commission on Palestine has greatly worried the Poles. In fact, one of the slogans of the Polish Colonial Society is that the Palestine mandate should hr transferred to Poland to help her in dealing with her Jewish problem at home. Meanwhile, however, the addition of Poland to the anti-Jewish countries means that something like 80 per cent of the European Jews outside Russia are now subject at the very least to serious disabilities in carrying on their avocations —and not infrequently are in danger of their lives.