Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 30 August 1938, Page 6

Timely Topics

“Though Britain must be prepared to meet the last arbitrament if forced upon us,” writes Mr J. L. Garvin, in the “Observer,” “this nation of all so-

NO CHALLENGE ON MINOR THINGS.

cieties and. this Empire of all systems would be stark mad to provoke it. We must not challenge it on minor and momentarythings, however irritating. The issue on which we stake the existence of the nation and the Empire for ever must be commensurable with the immensity of that irrevocable engagement. It must be an issue vital and fateful; clear beyond the possibility of mistake; approved as in the former conflict by the general opinion of the world. For these purposes of 'averting the appallirvg calamity of civilisation if we may, and of waging the greatest of all our struggles to the end if we must, with unconquerable endurance and resolve, the Government and the nation require a sleepless sagacity and an iron restraint. Whether for peace or war ! every single day's respite that is gained by the deliberate statesmanship of postponement in the hope of i prevention is wise, and inestimably fwise." ,• ...

“In the earlier years of the Nazi regime,” comments “The Times,” “Jews who emigrated might take with them

75 per cent, of their fortunes. Now the amount has been reduced to- 10 per

FAIR PLAY FOR THE JEWS.

cent. The remainder is held by the Reich authorities in non-transferable funds in Germany, which seem to be effectively lost to their owners even if they remain in Germany, and which they have, of course, no prospect of ever seeing again if they quit the country. The ‘flight tax’ brought the German Government nearly £7,000,000 in 1937. In other words, the Nazis take the bulk of the Jewish fortunes into their custody—‘protective’ custody, no doubt—and seek to fling their own impoverished subjects—for until now they have had German nationality—on the benevolence of other countries. It is an offence not only against the Jewish race., but against the community of nations. Not Jews alone, of course, but many of the most independent-minded and honourable members of the German race itself are the victims of the intolerance of Nazism. These, and Jews in absorbable numbers, will be made welcome in countries where more humane standards prevail and where openings can be made for them; but the principle should emphatically be upheld that each country is responsible for the proper treatment of its own Jewish population.”