South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-03-01
Mr.. Israel Zangwill.

the hope that England, the historic champion
Of small peoples would lead the Jew into the
Promised Land But this Jewish contribution
valuable az is the service it has rendered
at the Dardanelles-is too small to rank as
factor in mighty a war
For centuries England has been the politi
cal hope of the Jew, indeed the Holy Land
OF Europe, the cradle Of liberty, the fount
of salvation. How disconcerting then that in
this great war, nOminally waged moreover for
every Jewish ideal large sections of neutral
Jewish opinion should bitterly desire the de-
feat Of Britans greatest ally, and, indeed, by
journalistic and other imponderable influences
tend to it's downfall To understand how this
hatred for Russia could overcome even their
love and reverence for Britain, and their
loathing for Prussian militarism to whose
dangers l have tried to arouse them, we must
remember not merely the pogroms. but what
Mr. Lucien Wolf has called, in the title of his
invaluable compilation. "The Legal Suferings
of the Jews in Russia"
At the outbreak of the war the Russian
Jews found themselves-with few privileged
exceptions incarcerated in a pale whose very
villages were prohibited to them, debarred from
most offices of dignity in state or army, and
disallowed higher education except for min
ute percentage of the Candidates, chosen
with a last touch of diabolical ingenuity-not
for their intellectual promise but by lot. In
1913. OF 39OS Jewish students who applied for
admission to the universities and technical
colleges, 1872 were admitted. 1t the in
tellectual starvation OF a whole people. Pro
fessor Dicey, in an introduction to Mr.. VOLTS
book. wrote: The worst evil OF Russian despot-
ism is that il threatens the Jewish subjects OF
the Tsar with moral degradation. The
strange discussion of the horrible question
whether baptism shall save a Jew from the
disabilities to which he Is subject tells its
own tale. The persecution Of Russian
Jews is not matter which affects Russia alone
1t is assuredly the concern of every civ
flized State that the slow and laboriOus prog
ress of mankind should suffer no retrogres-
sion"
When Professor Dicey wrote this in 1912,
England not bound to protest merely as
civilized State She was bound TO protest as a
Edward Grey interpreted otherwise the great
tradition in his keeping. Il cannot interfere in
the Internal affairs Of Russia" That became
his for nula and he did not bulge from it, even
when he was shown how Russia put slur on
British citizenship by refusing British-born
Jews the right to enter Russia. America on
this very ground broke of her commercial
treaty with Russia, but England dared not
claim for her Lord Chief Justice and her Post
master General those rights to British protec-
ton against injustice and wrong, in what
ever land they might be, which Palmerston
INDICATED even for the Portuguese Jew OF
Gibraltar. robbed by a mob at Athens.
And when the Entente was changed into an
Alliance and Engauds responsibility for Rus
sia proportionately increased, Sir Edward Grey
still ingeminated his formula though Russia's
internal affairs had clearly become Englands
internal affairs, involving her and her for
tunes in the odium they excited. In vain,
while urging upon the Jews of neutral lands