Part 32 (1/2)

On March 23, 1943, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented the following Resolution to the House of Lords:

”To move to resolve, that, in view of the ma.s.sacres and starvation of Jews and others in enemy and enemy occupied countries, this House desires to a.s.sure His Majesty's Government of its fullest support for immediate measures, on the largest and most generous scale compatible with the requirements of military operations and security, for providing help and temporary asylum to persons in danger of ma.s.sacre who are able to leave enemy and enemy-occupied countries.” <245>

The Archbishop said:

”...We are wisely advised not to limit our attention in this connection to the sufferers of any one race, and we must remember that there are citizens of many countries who are subject to just the same kind of monstrous persecution, and even ma.s.sacre. None the less, there has been a concentration of this fury against the Jews, and it is inevitable that we should give special attention to what is being carried through, and still further plotted against them...

”We are told that the only real solution is rapid victory. No doubt it is true that if we could win the war in the course of a few weeks we could still deliver mult.i.tudes of those who are now doomed to death. But we dare not look for such results, and we know that what we can do will be but little in comparison with the need. My whole plea on behalf of those for whom I am speaking is that whether what we can do be large or little it should at least be all we can do.”

The Archbishop then told of the deportation of Jews from Moravia, Germany, Rumania, and Holland, and of the slaughter of Jews in Poland. He continued:

”I believe that part of our difficulty in arousing ourselves and our fellow- countrymen to the degree of indignation that it would seem to merit is the fact that the imagination recoils before it. It is impossible to hold such things at all before the mind. But we are all agreed in this House on the main purpose of this Motion, to offer our utmost support to the Government in all they can do; but with all sympathy for members of His Majesty's Government, I am sure they will forgive some of us who wonder whether quite everything possible has really already been done.”

The Archbishop recalled ”the solemn statement of the United Nations made public on December 17”, and contrasted ”the solemnity of the words then used, and the reception accorded to them, with the very meagre action that had actually followed”.

”It is the delays in the whole matter while these horrors go on daily that make some of us wonder whether it may not be possible to speed up a little.

One must admit that some of the arguments. .h.i.therto advanced as justifying the comparative inaction seem quite disproportionate to the scale of the evil confronting us.

As reasons for no further action, ”the great part that has been taken by this country and other countries in the relief of the refugees” was pointed out.

<246> ”That, of course, would be relevant if the people in the other lands were suffering great discomfort or great privation, but when what you are confronted with is wholesale ma.s.sacre, it seemed to most of us not only irrelevant but grotesquely irrelevant.”

The Secretary of State for the Colonies had given a promise with regard to the admission of Jews to Palestine, on February 3, but on February 24 no attempt to move these persons had yet taken place. The Archbishop made a plea that action should be taken as promptly as possible to carry out the promises given by the Colonial Secretary. He also urged, ”that we should revive the scheme of visas for entry into this country”.

”We want to suggest the granting of blocks of visas to the Consuls in Spain and Portugal and perhaps in Turkey to be used at their discretion. We know of course that the German Government will not give exit permits. What matters is that we should open our doors irrespective of the question whether the German door is open or shut, so that all who can may come...

It is of the greatest importance to give relief to those neutral countries because there is at present a steady stream or perhaps more accurately a steady trickle of refugees from France both into Spain and into Switzerland.

The numbers that those countries, already suffering a good deal in shortage of food and with their standard of life so far below our own, will be able to receive are of course limited.

If we can open the door at the other side and bring away from Spain and Portugal and (if transport is available but probably it would not) from Switzerland and also from Turkey those who are able to make their escape there, we shall render it far more probable that the channels through which that trickle percolates will not be blocked...

Then, once more, it is urged, that we should offer help to European neutrals, to encourage them to admit new refugees, in the form of guarantees from the United Nations to relieve them of a stipulated proportion of refugees after the victory, or, if possible, sooner; that we should offer direct financial aid...

There is one point I would raise more tentatively... It is that through some neutral power an offer should directly be made to the German Government to receive Jews in territories of the British Empire and, so far as they agree, of the other Allied Nations on a scheme of so many each month.

Very likely it would be refused, and then Hitler's guilt would stand out all the more evidently. If the offer were accepted there would of course be difficulties enough, but it would be the business of the Germans to overcome these so far as concerns the conveyance of the refugees to the ports, and efforts could be made to secure help from Sweden and other neutral countries for s.h.i.+pping from the ports...

Some of us have wondered how far the possibility has been considered of receiving any considerable number, particularly of children, in Eire and whether the Government of Eire have been consulted about this... <247> ”It is said that there is a danger of Anti-Semitic feeling in this country.

No doubt that feeling exists in some degree, and no doubt it could very easily be fanned into flame, but I am quite sure it exists at present only in comparatively small patches. It is very local when it exists at all, and therefore it receives a degree of attention beyond what it deserves.

But if the Government were to decide that it was wise and practicable to put in action any of the proposals that I have laid before your Lords.h.i.+ps, it would be very easy for the Government, by skilful use of the wireless, to win the sympathy and confidence of the people for their proposals, especially if a large number of those who were brought out were children and were being delivered from almost certain death...

The whole matter is so big and other claims are so urgent that we want further to make the proposition that there shall be appointed someone of high standing for whom this should be a primary responsibility...

My chief protest is against procrastination of any kind. It was three months ago that the solemn declaration of the United Nations was made and now we are confronted with a proposal for an exploratory Conference at Ottawa. That sounds as if it involves much more delay.

It took five weeks from December 17 for our Government to approach the United States, and then six weeks for the Government of the United States to reply, and when they did reply they suggested a meeting of representatives of the Government for preliminary exploration. The Jews are being slaughtered at the rate of tens of thousands a day on many days, but there is a proposal for a preliminary exploration to be made with a view of referring the whole matter after that to the Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees. My Lords, let us at least urge that when that Conference meets it should not meet for exploration only but for decision.

We know that what we can do is small compared with the magnitude of the problem, but we cannot rest so long as there is any sense among us that we are not doing all that might be done.

We have discussed the matter on the footing that we are not responsible for this great evil, that the burden lies on others, but it is always true that the obligations of decent men are decided for them by contingencies which they did not themselves create and very largely by action of wicked men.

The priest and the Levite in the parable [536] were not in the least responsible for the traveller's wounds as he lay there by the roadside and no doubt they had many other pressing things to attend to, but they stand as the picture of those who are condemned for neglecting the opportunity of showing responsibility. We at this moment have upon us a tremendous responsibility. We stand at the bar of history, of humanity and of G.o.d.

I beg to move.” [537] <248>

After the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken, Lord Rochester spoke ”as a Methodist layman”:

'...No one can preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and remain indifferent to social inst.i.tutions which contradict that teaching. Wherever the Churches find practices which are contrary to Christian doctrine, whether they be such diabolical and horrifying practices as these we are more especially considering this afternoon, or others, it is no more than their bounden duty to denounce them...

We are concerned with all persecuted minorities, but the Christian necessarily feels an intimate responsibility in regard to the Jews, since Christ 'according to the flesh' came out of Israel. Almost every page of the New Testament shows how close was the a.s.sociation between religious Judaism and the first followers of Christ...

'I must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.' [538]

And woe to us if we leave any stone unturned in seeking to aid and succour those of our fellow human beings who are suffering this cruel n.a.z.i stumbling- block of offence. The n.a.z.is have indeed debased themselves even unto h.e.l.l, but let us remember' the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,'

as we recall those words in the 57th chapter of Isaiah: 'Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people'. [539]

I support the Motion of the most reverend Primate, and I would urge the redoubling of our efforts to succour 'one of the least of these', as we recall the latter part of the 25th chapter of St. Matthew.” [540]