[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Allow me as a
member of the race whose honour and courage Miss Savage imputes, and one who at the time of the crisis volunteered like many other Jews for service in the British Army, to answer her charges against the refugees.
After stating correctly that most of the refugees are Jews, she asks how many Jews would fight for England in time of war? There are many thousands of Jews who could have answered her better than myself—but they are dead, killed fighting for England in the Great War. Of the Jews who have found sanctuary in England from Nazi inhumanity, the rush during the crisis to offer their services to the British defence forces was so great that a special enlistment department was opened for them at Woburn House. The refugees con- sidered it not only a duty but a matter of honour to be among the first in the defence of the people who succoured them in need.
That there were Jews who left London for the country during the crisis I do not doubt. I have equally no doubt that in the constant stream of cars which I saw in those days passing my house on the Watford by-pass, wisely making for the hoped-for security of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire (and perhaps even Hertfordshire, Miss Savage?), the proportion of Jews was no larger than their proportion to the general population.
Your Special Correspondent has explained how the Home Office control of refugees causes them to reduce unemployment rather than increase it. It is not a coincidence that those whom anti-semitism makes champion the unemployed are those who at other times characterise the unemployed as work-shy.—Yours
faithfully, MAURICE EDELMAN.
Whewell House, Mill Hill, N.W. 7.
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