[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In connexion with the
interesting article in last week's Spectator may I point out that it was Edward I, not Edward II, who expelled all the Jews from England in 129o, and that though this may have been mistaken policy on his part it could hardly be dubbed his " disgrace " as the edict was, on his express order, carried out with humanity—extreme humanity, when compared with the gigantic " dragonnade " we are witnessing today. Again it was not Queen Catherine as the writer of the article states, who expelled the Jews from Spain in 5492, but Queen Isabella. She, humane woman (except with regard to religion) that she was, probably never even dreamt of, much less foresaw, the horrors, so graphically described by Prescott, which their expulsion would entail. Besides those were the ages of Faith and one might perhaps -put in a plea on that score for " Isabella La Catolica." But " this," as Mrs. Hamilton says, " is 1938," and Faith—at any rate Christian Faith, would appear to be at a discount in Nazi Germany. And, with regard to racialism per se—
Professor Griffith Taylor, of the University of Toronto, in his presidential address (geographical section) at the British Association meeting last August, referring to his twenty years' work on the " Migration Zone," declared that " all the pro- gressive nations of the world were built up of the same three stocks—Alpine, Nordic and Mediterranean—that the term ' Aryan ' can only be applied to speech and that few people realise that the term ' Jew ' should only be applied to religion —that racially the German Jews are Alpines like the South Germans and that where this thesis is accepted the evil structure based on race-prejudice ' falls to the ground."
Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight. BEATRICE O'CONOR.
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