ANTI-SEMITISM
SIR,—It appears that my lighthearted attempt to pour a little oil on the unusually troubled waters of the Cann has failed. Perhaps the oil was too thin.•Cer- tainly I overestimated the miscibility of the heavy, clammy sentimentality befogging this problem..1 am unrepentant.
I doubt the need (or space) for protracted debate on the degree of toleration or sensitiveness which should be exercised. Neither do I intend to enter-into at physiognomical discussion' with Mr. Sainsbury, beyond a recommendation that 'Beauty and'the Beast' makes quite good reading. Nor do I 'propose to change my name as he suggests; I would never get away with it. 1 should be accused of taking the Michael. I do hope, however, that he reads this letter a little more carefully than he read the other; the raw material, humour, not the end-product, toleration, was the recommended Irish export. •
I would like to assure Mr. Arthur C. Jacobs that any misunderstandings I had of the true nature of anti-Semitism were dispelled during my time in Ger- many and the free (sic) city .of Danzig betWeeri 1934 and 1936. Part of the time in the home of a Jewish boy, to whom I had been of some help as a 'guardian angel' whilst at school in England. .I saw Mr. Wein- berg's correlatives of normality and respectability at work. Not a beautiful sight. Mr. ja6obs should be grateful for any efforts to 'minimise' them before they get out of hand.
Unlike Mr. Jacobs I will say something about Jews less talented than those he lists. Along with a copy of Feuchtwanger's Jew Siiss I would send Sir Oswald Mosley an exhortation to try and see Charles Chap- lin's true masterpiece The Great Dictator, if it is shown in his area.
I muSt decline the kind invitation to accompany Mr. Jacobs to Speakers' Corner. I graduated from Hyde Park over twenty years ago, when the Irish were as competent with their overdramatised denunciations as I am sure they are today. I was never quite sure whether it was a sign of the demonology of the sick mind, or whether they were taking steps to ensure a good 'take' when the cap was passed round out of sight of the prejudiced peelers.
Finally, and this time I mean finally, I am neither pro nor anti. A Jew to me is just another person. Either I like him or 1 dislike him.—Yours faithfully,
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