OCTOBER  23rd,  1942
THE   CANADIAN   JEWISH   REVIEW
ANTI-SEMITISM DEBATED IN HOUSE OF LORDS
(Oe*ti*umt from Pops O**)
among the ipimu�l cousin* of the German Next* and the Italian Faa-catti. Wise and temperate props-nmnda mifht do something to ostiswsraci dangerous fallacies, but *� did not believe that any Government, however enlightened their leading niembers might be, ooukt entirely eradicate anti-Semi-tie and anti-German refugee prejudice. He made two suggestion*,   .
First, the Government should' make it taster tor men of the refuges type serving in the Pioneer Corps to transfer to other breaches of the Service. Secondly, nothing would do more to fortify the morals of aliens who were actively helping la the war effort than for the Government to offer them now British dtssenship when the we* was over, provided, of course, that their record remained � unimpeachable throughout the whole period.
Lord Jaariey said he Intervened because he noticed a reference to Canada in the motion end a request for the full use of men-power, reports the London Jewish Chronicle.
In his capacity as Vlce-Chalr-man of the Refugee Committee of Parliament he had in recent months visited the internment camps in Canada. It was his privilege to go to one of the camps to open, on behalf of the Canadian authorities, a metal-work training school established for the purpose of using the man-power of the refugees. By that time these� were only between 1,000 and 1,200 refugees still interned, and the camps had been turned from barbed-wire enclosures into absolutely open camps. The interned refugees were able to walk out of the camp and come back again, and there had not been a single case.of breaking bounds.
-In the school which we established, largely by funds some of whkh I was able to help to get from the United States of America, we are training 140 refugees at a time in a four .months' course. The r>n�r��n Government have established, alongside the Internment camp, a special camp which Is called a repair depot Every refu* gee wno has completed his four itha* traming is moved to the repair depot, where he a free man. He Is no refugee: he is a
Viscount Cranbome replied that he sympathised deeply with the main purpose of Lord Wedgwood in reprobating to the utmost degree the wickedness of anti-Semitism.
In that Lord Wedgwood was, it he would only believe It, entirely at one with His Majesty's Government. But if any of their Lordships had intended to raise a debate on the ill-treatment. of the Jews�and heaven only knew that that treatment was horrible enough �he would have expected it would have been devoted to the really terrible events which were at present occurring in Germany, in Poland, In Csechostovekia, and now even in France.
'There, in those occupied countries, unhappy people are being starved, tortured, and done to death; husbands are being torn from their wives; mothers are being torn from their children. These unfortunate people are being subjected to every form of horror and
humiliation which a perverted imagination could devise, and all this merely on account of their race and their religion. I think it is probably the moat shocking exhibition of sadistic cruelty and depravity which the world has ever known, and it makes one's blood boil even to think of It"
But he thought it was universally recognized that there was no country m the world where there was less justification for the charge of discrimination against Jews than in this country at the present time. In Britain, and we might very well be proud of it, there was entire equality between Jews and other members of the community, "The noble Lord referred to some unspe* clfied members of what he called the 'governing classes' who were, in his opinion, sympathizing with Hitler's treatment of the Jews. I can only say that if he has heard these unspecified people saying these things he must keep very-odd company Indeed."
In spite of what Lord Llstowel said, the extent of anti-Semitic feeling in Britain was very much exaggerated. There were, of course, moments of tension in a war when suspicions might very naturally arise, and amongst them, in some people, suspicion against the Jews, especially foreign Jews who were refugees in this country. But British toleration was very great. He did not believe that those feelings really went very deep, and he was convinced that when the emergency was over they would disappear again, as they had always done in the past
Refugees, continued Lord Cranbome, were being encouraged to take part in the war effort and were being very widely employed. Going on to reply in detail to certain specific cases Lord Wedgwood had cited, Lord Cranbome alleged that consciously or unconsciously Lord Wedgwood seemed to want that Jews should occupy a privileged position. To that, of course,
the British people would never agree, and what was more, the Jews themselves would not want it, because they knew perfectly well that would be the quickest and surest way of promoting anti-Semitism.
"But if the noble Lord's motion had been put down merely to obtain an assurance that H.M. Government were not  anti-Semitic,
that is what I may call a very easy ball for one to hit a six off, and I am very reedy to give him that assurance absolutely and in the most unqualified manner."
Lord Wedgwood formally withdrew his motion, after commenting on the Government reply and also explaining that there was no can* sure of Canada's or Australia's atti-Jtude to refugees in his motion.
One of the aeasJ anHs of this was that although the British Government offered to the refugees a certain number of place* m ships going to England, where their cases might be reviewed, the number of refugees taking advantage of this offer was only about one-third of the number of places open to them. The others preferred to stay hi Canada, where, by this system devised by the Canadian Government they were able to make that contribution to the war effort which they all desired to make. He suggested this method should be borne in mind in so far as It could be applied in the United Kftiyfcww as it had been amazingly successful in Canada in solving the very problems to which Lord. Wedgwood referred.
Lord Strabolgi appealed to Lord Cranborne to follow in a rather wider sense the example of the Prime Minister's speech in which he denounced the abominable treatment of the Jewish refugees in France by the Laval regime. Anti-Semitism could also be fostered in F-agifmri, and the beginnings of it were seen before the war. The only pieces reeUy where the so-ealled British Fascist movement made any sort of progress was among certain hooligan elements m the East End of London, in Leeds and in Manchester, and one or two Other centres where there was a considerable concentration of Jewish artisans, traders, and merchants. That hooligan element could usually be stimulated into anti-Jewish excesses, A word of protest from Lord Cranborne might stop at its source the incipient anti-Semitism which; he feared, existed In a very dangerous and ob-aoxioas sentiment the beginnings of which were found in certain sec-of the Chnl Service, m cer-of the Army, and m quarters. It came it that had sbointnshle ex-end cruelties ta Germany.
"I'm glad I live in Canada. My family is safe here. There is no Gestapo, no hunger, no brutal aggression. I have a good job, and I am free, and unafraid.
"In the land of my birth, the people have been robbed and beaten, their money and possessions forcibly taken from them. Here in my country, I can lend my money and know that it is safe, backed by all the wealth of Canada, and that I will get interest on it, too. I am gladly doing without some things so as to be ready to lend every dollar I can to the country that has been good to me and my fai
*     *�     *
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