THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as n Newspaper SATURDAY AUGUST'23, 1947. Jews Embarrass Britain

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1947, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as n Newspaper SATURDAY AUGUST'23, 1947. Jews Embarrass Britain

Another deplorable example of Jewish conduct towards the British people, in the shape of biting the hand that has fed them, is provided in today’s cable news. Large numbers of the Jewish race, homeless and repressed as a result of the war in Europe, have endeavoured to land in Palestine in defiance of the British authorities, who are forced to restrict immigrants to a specified quota. These people, many of whom have been misled by organisations more intent upon making money out of the misery of the Jews than in promoting the welfare of Palestine as a national home, have been herded on ships, some seaworthy only in fine weather, and all grossly overloaded. The shippers of the illegal immigrants have no doubt been well aware that landing on the soil of Palestine would be prevented by the British in accordance with the terms of a task that should have been undertaken by the United Nations. Ship after ship has been intercepted and their complements of immigrants taken to islands in the Eastern Mediterranean, where they were regarded as anything but welcome guests.

Eventually it became necessary for more drastic steps to be taken, and it is this which has precipitated action none will regret more than Britain.

Three British ships, carrying 4400 Jewish refugees, were turned back and convoyed by warships to France, upon whose soil the Jews were ordered to land.

This order has been ignored for several weeks as the outcome of objections partly Jewish and partly French.

A British ultimatum, declaring that immigrants who did not disembark would be taken to the British zone in Germany and placed in displaced persons’ camps at Belsen and Bergen, has been offensively defied. In the existing circumstances Britain will have no option-but to convey the immigrants to Germany and forcibly consign them to camps which already accommodate 10,000 of the zone’s 11,000 displaced persons. Why, it may well be asked, have Jewish leaders forced Britain to action repugnant to a power that has been the friend and protector of Jewry down through the ages?

The Times has no doubt placed its finger upon a great deal of the agitation that has had tragic results in Palestine when it says that while sympathy may be felt for Jews who have voyaged across Europe and the Mediterranean only to find themselves turned back after reaching the coast of the Promised Land, “quite other sentiments will be entertained for those who have impelled and organised this painful and haphazard emigration.”

The Times is on safe ground when it declares that the game of the organisers is abundantly clear: determination, at whatever cost in suffering to others, to exploit the bitter situation in Palestine and embarrass the Britisli Government.

They have been well aware that the inevitable interception of illegal immigrant ships by British patrols would add fuel to the fire of hatred lighted and fanned by themselves and kindred agencies.

Deplorable it is that these things should be, especially when the actions of trouble fomenters are directed against a nation which has upheld the Jewish cause with constancy and the courage of a good conscience, but “who will continue to resist a manoeuvre to make political capital, whether by terror or any other method, of the wretchedness of people who have already suffered too much.”

There had been expressed a hope that the illegal immigrants on board the three British ships in French waters would yet obey the British ultimatum, and thus avoid, in the interests of everybody, a course of action which must have regrettable effect upon all concerned, but particularly the Jewish people who are being used as pawns by players in a nefarious game. However, the latest news is that the ships have sailed for Germany, and that the immigrants have appealed to UNO. The terrible experiences of the Jewish people at the hands of European Governments and nationals should surely have moved leaders of Jewry to do everything possible to relieve Britain from embarrassment at a time when she needs all the help that can be given, for without a strong Britain in the years to come the lot of the Jewish people would be tragic indeed.