GERMANY AND THE JEWS.

Western Star, 11 October 1938, Page 3

GERMANY AND THE JEWS.

“I have known myself, as a guest of the German Government, what it is to be token through the lovely countryside in Germany, and then, to feel the profound discomfort which comes from seeing those placards of hatred against the Jews which encounter you as you pass through that lovely country," said Lord Allen or Hurtwood, in a speech in the House of Lords. "Some of us have known in Germany, even when we have been the guests of the German Government, what it is to have in our hands the hand of a little German child, a child which its school has been compelled to sqt upon benches separate from its .school-fellows, an object of contempt, for no other, reason than that it is the child of its parents. "I cannot conceive anything more

cruel than to try to stir up hatred between child and parent. That is not a persecution of opinion, that is not an attempt to put down sedition, that is persecution of blood, from which there is no escape; and, for a child to be brought under that form of persecution, I think must stir the heart of anyone who_ has passed through that experience in Germany.

"Germany has said that British democracy is degenerate. Well, I for one, was never more proud of British democracy than when Professor Freud, that great scientist, aged, infirm, became an exile and was welcomed within our shores.

“There was taken to him a register of the Royal Society in order that he might inscribe bis name therein, an act which I believe has never been carried through in this country except 1 for members of our Royal Family; and thus degenerate democracy linked an exiled and distinguished Jewish scientist with members of our own Royal’ Family. That seemed to be a cause of pride, and not a sign of degeneracy. “I hope I have not spoken too unrestrainedly,/ but this whole attitude in' the Germains, with whom we air so longing to see a peace settlement, is affecting issue after issue which comes directly within purview *of any settlement that will have to be made.

"Take the question of German colonies. I think most British people realise that when those colonies were taken from Germany they were taken not . strictly in accordance either with the spirit or the letter of the ' Fourteen Points of President Roosevelt. I believe that most .schools of thought would be. eager and anxious .to brings about some readjustment of the colonial problem as part of an all-round ' peace settlement. , j “But do not our German friends ! realise that just as we have become con- > scious of an old wrong they now con- . front us with the dilemma of facing I a new , wrong, and \we cannot overlook the consequences upon native populations in those colonial areas when we ■ see the tragic evils which are being | perpetrated in Germany Iso far as Ger- j man minorities like the Jews are con- J cemcd. > And so I have ventured to , use this debate to plead that there may be some response from Germany to the | 4esire of the Evian Conference for col- i iaboration.” \ !