JEWS IN ENGLAND

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4264, 26 May 1936, Page 2

JEWS IN ENGLAND

WARNING TO FASCISTS BAITING NOT TOLERATED EAST END INCIDENTS A warning to Fascists in Britain was issued by the Home Secretary (Sir John Simon) in the House of Commons recently. The matter arose on the report ot a vote on account for civil and revenue departments, when Mr H. Morrison moved to reduce the vote by £IOO (reI ports 4 The Times ’). He stiicl that the question which he wished to raise con--1 cernecl tlie safety and security of cer--1 tain residents and citizens in the Fast Fnd of London. Questions had recently been put to the Home Secretary in regard to attacks on members of the ! Jewish community in the Fast Fnd of 1 London by persons who appeared to be members of 1 ascist organisations. The replies of the Home Secretary had been very helpful, and the Opposition was pleased that the right lion, gentleman took a serious and firm view of this matter. But it was thought that they ought to bring in somewhat more ' extended form certain questions before 1 the House in order that the Home SecI rotary might realise the gravity ot the situation. He (Mr Morrison) had before him certain statements and allegations with regard to attacks upon the Jewish community in the borough of Shoreditch. There, and to some extent in Bethnal Green and Hackney, there had developed during recent months a spirit and activities which were endangering the good order of the neighbourhood and which had caused grave apprehension to certain residents in that district. JEALOUSY AND ENVY. The right lion, gentleman proceeded I to give some of the instances brought to his attention. He said he had asked for the information on the basis that it should be carefully verified and that the persons giving it should ho sure what they were saying. The commitj tee would appreciate that in all the I circumstances it would not be right to I give the House in public the names and I addresses of the persons concerned, but lie was willing to hand the papers over ’ to the Home Secretary afterwards, so that he might make any inquiries he thought fit. j In a leaflet issued by the Imperial I Fascist League it was stated that there ' were about 3.000,000 Jews in this country, or “ roughly, the same number as there are unemployed Englishmen.” That was the same brutal incitement to jealousy and envy among the population as that upon which the Nazi revolution in Germany was based. There j was developing in Fast London a situal tion which contained the elements of | grave potential trouble unless the police i and the magistrates came down on it i firmly and said that it had got to stop, i If the nation took the view that the | Jewish population should be excluded, j Parliament should face up to that issue I and should do it if it were wise. He j was perfectly certain that no Parlia--1 ment was likely to do such a thing, i They could not, however, tolerate a . situation in which citizens were kept j in terror of going out into the streets. Sir John Simon said that this was a subject which especially concerned the 1 Home Office, which was charged with j the business of keeping public order, I and to a large extent of preserving civil liberty. It was a subject which affected the whole Government and the whole country, and one on which decent people could not have two opinions. He did not believe that there was any widespread feeling against Jews in this country, hut undoubtedly in certain quarters of London where Jews especially congregated there had developed a very disquieting movement, and, he agreed, a movement which was potentially very dangerous. ENTITLED TO VIEWS. It was the preaching of a doctrine of hatred against the Jews because they were Jews. That certainly seemed to be inherent in the Fascist movement in this country. If this were indeed a free country a man was as entitled to profess the Fascist philosophy as any other philosophy, and he was perfectly entitled to proclaim it so long as he did not exceed the reasonable bounds sen by law. This matter had nothing to do with whether we liked a particular philosophy or not. The House was not discussing anybody’s political tenets; it was merely discussing the effects of a movement which was making it its business to encourage our citizens to look on the Jew as an outcast. That he was not. He was a citizen living here under the law like the rest of us, and was entitled to the same fair treatment. It was certainly part of the business of those administering the law to do what they could to deal with the problem. In this country wo were not prepared to tolerate any form of Jew-baiting. (Cheers.) We were not in the least disposed to look with an indulgent eye on any form of persecution, and it was very necessary that public attention should he called to tins particular danger as it was that the Administration should do what it could to deal with it. He had had this matter brought to his attention by bon. members and by police reports fairly frequently, and he bad made it bis business personally ) to examine any cases which came before j the department. Ho agreed that un- i less proper action were taken there were the seeds of serious development. But apart from that, individual citizens wore entitled to the protection which the law could give them. (Hear, hear.) A man was breaking the law if, with reference to a section of the community, he used language of insult, abuse, and provocation to such an extent that he was encouraging people to he violent or to behave without respect to the rights of those he attacked. THE DIFFICULTIES. There were difficulties in dealing with the problem effectively. There was the difficulty of getting evidence, and proceedings could not he taken unless they bad a case which could be proved to the satisfaction of the court. While he recognised how bard it was for people to come forward and that it would he a cheap form of assistance to tell them to have more courage, at the same time it was difficult to take proceedings unless one had adequate testimony. How-

ever, the Commissioner of Police, the Home Office authorities, and he had [ been considering the problem, and had | received a series of complaints that Jews in the Jewish districts of London had been subjected to abuse and violent assault. It had been suggested that in I dealing with Fascists and Fascist demonstrations the police discriminated in their favour and gave them facilities and protection which were in contrast to the methods adopted in respect of 1 the activities of the extreme Left. (Mr Gallacher, Fife, W., Com.: Hear, hear.) He (Sir John Simon) was completely convinced that there was no truth in that suggestion. The only I interest of the police was to do the best they could in difficult circumstances to keep the peace and to deal with breaches of the peace. I The propaganda which they were j considering originated largely at meetings at which most offensive language was used about Jews. The police did ! their best to watch these meetings and | consider whether there was abuse ot I the right of free speech and encouri agement to break the law. Scotland 1 Yard took the view—and it was the view whjch he took—that it was in- : tolerable that any section of the community should be subjected to the sort iof abuse which was likely to load to ' a breach of the peace, j To the Fascist who came before a ; London magistrate the other day the 'magistrate said: “In this jurisdiction there is going to be no baiting, whether of Jews or Communists or Fascists or any other group of men. Every individual who observes the law is entitled to receive and will receive from this court and the police full pro--1 tection from the law, whatever his religion, race, oi politics.” That summed up the position extremely well, and he associated himself very fully with what the magistrate said. The magistrate uttered a warning about the pos- | sibility of a more severe course being taken in the future, and that, and the publicity given to the matter today, would justify pretty smart sentences. CAREFUL INQUIRY. The Home Office inquired most carefully into every case which was brought to their attention. He agreed that if the police had evidence they ought not to leave it to the individual to prosecute, and that it was a public matter. I Not being satisfied with the present situation, he had recently been in consultation with the Commissioner of Bolice with a view to seeing whether more effective measures could be devised. As a result it had been decided to detail additional police for duty in these districts. They would be speci--1 ally charged with the responsibility of keeping a look-out for provocative conduct calculated to lead to a breach of the peace, or to injury; and it was hoped very much that the general pub-lic—-the ordinary decent citizen who wished to see fair play all round—would not regard any case of this sort ■ as a matter merely between the two parties concerned, but would feel that it was las duty, as it certainly was to come lor ward and help to see the law administered and the offending person properly identified. It was one of the Common Law duties of every citizen to help the police. One of the reasons wlty in this country serious crime such as the holding-up of banks and post offices did not succeed was not because we were more virtuous than other people, but because the ordinary citizen stepped in and constantly lent a hand, i W hen somebody was attacked there was a natural inclination on the part of any man—or woman —of reasonable spirit*and courage to do his best to see that the thing was stopped and that the offender was identified. If the public would help the police in this matter he was confident that they could do a great deal to improve the situation. The information which he had did not give the slightest ground for supporting the view that this movement was on the increase. it was very much the opposite. But it was true that the number of individuals who appeared to be connected with it were j still extremely active, and this would I certainly call for proper police action. He felt that it was right to concen- ' trate attention on this point tor the ■ benefit ot the House and the public. He held very strongly, so far as the Homo Office and the police wore concerned, that they had nothing to .do j with people’s political philosophies. They had only to see that every citi- | zeu had a fair opportunity of Jiving 'in peace and exercising the rights which they claimed for themselves. BOTH A MENACE. But he could not help having this j reflection in his mind. There were i two political philosophies-—the philo--1 suphy of Fascism and the philosophy jof Communism. He said nothing ! against either of them, but they were I alike in this that they both undoubtedly constituted a menace to the ideas of l freedom by which the majority of the ! nation held: and in both cases they might be disposed sometimes to seek their ends by forcible methods. That was the reason why the Prime MinI ister had more than once said that both these movements, logically and ultimately, involved dictatorship. Whether 'it was a dictatorship of the Bight or of the Lett did not seem to make much difference. lie did not think that either of these philosophies was likely to make much headway in this country unless the nation were misguided enough to allow itself to be divided into two opposing camps. The police had a very difficult task in this connection. People objected very much, and rightly, if a policeman interfered without cause. But the police would be Jailing in their duty if they allowed these two opposing bodies to come into open conflict in the streets. As he saw that duty of the police it was to preserve the liberties ol us all, and to see to it that while everybody had an opportunity of expressing his opinions we did not got this conflict developed and encouraged. For that reason among others, he was most anxious to do what ho could, with the help of the experienced officials of the Home Office and the police force, and he hoped with the approval of the House generally, to see to it that they so administered police action in watching these areas in the East End of London as to bring tlrts thing to an end He was quite convinced that they could do it. It was not a situation that appealed to the instinct of th ordinary Englishman as being at all tolerable. (Hear, hear.) It was one of those things in which they all united in trying to do the right thing and ho appreciated the opportunity

which this debate had given to show that at the Home Office they were anxious to do this. He denied altogether that the police were trying to use their powers in a partisan spirit and he believed that this debate would greatly strengthen the hands of the police and provide them with chat public opinion behind them, which was what they always needed, to bring about a more tolerable state of things. (Cheers.^