[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I have read the
answers of your various correspondents to my letter on this subject and note that people of Mr. Salomon's mentality do not approve of people of Mr. Reed's mentality.
My original suggestion was that alien immigrants, if they wish the shelter of these shores, should fully share our burdens, -including that of conscription, and I do not find this base, or provocative of racial prejudice. Nor am I reassured by Mr. Mander's statement that we may soon have a statement about the acceptance of such people "as volunteers," or by Mr. Salomon's statement that, though I must not assume that these immigrants will be exempt or be allowed to take up jobs on the home front, "it may, of course, be necessary for a number to be drafted into jobs at present held by Englishmen, but these jobs will be obviously on a war-time basis," &c.
I distrust the obvious.
I do not think anybody is entitled to describe the sugges- tion that alien immigrants should fully share our burdens as "racial prejudice." I do not know whether Mr. Salomon is a Jew, but if he is I should like to say that I think Jews, particularly, should be wary of using this phrase. I was told by a most highly educated Jew once that the racial, or anti- Jewish laws enacted by Hitler at Nuremberg were mild com- pared with the racial, or anti-Gentile laws of the Mosaic faith. In my opinion, the method of living of the Jewish com- munities gives support to this statement. However, I did not use such phrases as this. I proposed that immigrants in this country should fully share our burdens.
Apropos of this, can anybody tell me whether our burdens —income - tax, for instance, or any of our other burdens— would be borne by the German Jew whose case is reported in today's newspapers? He was charged with living in this country for five years without notifying his address and at the time of his detection was "running a hotel." The police witness said he had been here since 034 without notifying the police of his whereabouts. On landing, he was told that he must not engage in business, but he started an hotel under an assumed name. His biggest fear was that he would be sent back to Germany.
If anything is ever obvious, I should have thought perusal of our daily newspapers would have made it obvious that a very big gap in our arrangements exists today which needs
Previous page
