Part 22 (1/2)
I only hope that those who give up the struggle will not follow the example of a few misguided irresponsibles who chose the wrong way to support a right claim. I hope that they will await their release in a calm and dignified manner, discharging their duties to the last moment, and thus giving those who misrule this country a lesson in fair play--a lesson badly needed.
I remain, Sir, Your obedient Servant, XX.
To LIEUTENANT-COLONEL J. H. PATTERSON, D.S.O., Commanding 38TH BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS.
Bir Salem, 17-7-1919.
TO OFFICER COMMANDING 38TH ROYAL FUSILIERS.
SIR,
I have the honour to request that this application praying that I may be permitted to resign my Commission in His Majesty's Forces be forwarded through the usual channels, together with the undermentioned reasons for my taking this step after having originally volunteered for the Army of Occupation.
My resignation, Sir, is my only method of protest against the grossly unfair and all too prevalent discrimination against the battalion to which I have the honour to belong. I desire to point out to you, Sir, the fact that this unfair and un-British att.i.tude affects not only my honour as a Jew, but my prestige as a British officer, and this latter point must inevitably handicap me in the efficient discharge of my military duties.
The disgraceful exhibition of yesterday morning is but a fitting climax to the endless series of insults and annoyances to which this battalion--because it is a _Jewish Battalion_--has been subjected, almost since our first arrival in the E.E.F. Insults to a battalion as a whole, Sir, are insults directed to every individual member of that battalion, and as long as I remain a member of His Majesty's Forces, I regret to say I find myself unable to fittingly resent in a manner compatible with my own honour, and the honour of my race, the insulting att.i.tude towards my race, and through my race, towards me, of my military superiors.
In pa.s.sing, may I point out that my being a Jew did not prevent me doing my duty in France, in Flanders, and in Palestine, and in the name of the countless dead of my race who fell doing their duty in every theatre of war, I resent, and resent very strongly indeed, the abusive att.i.tude at present prevalent towards Jewish troops.
I have innumerable instances of petty spite, and not a few cases of a very serious character indeed, all of which I can readily produce should the occasion ever arise.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, Y.Y.
It was not only my Jewish officers who found life unbearable under these conditions, but the other officers also felt the strain.
I received the following letter from one of my senior Christian Officers after an outburst on the part of the Staff:
To the O.C. 38TH BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS.
Sir,
I have the honour to request that I be immediately relieved of my duties and permitted to proceed to England for demobilization. I am 40 years of age, and have had nothing except my desire to do my duty to keep me in the Service. The impossible conditions forced on the battalion by higher authority are too much for me, and I very much regret that I should have to trouble you with this application at the present time.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, SS.
Bir Salem, 24TH AUGUST, 1919.
Letters such as these give some slight conception of the extremely difficult position in which I was placed. On the one hand I had to ward off the blows aimed at the battalion by the local military authorities, while on the other hand I had to do my utmost to allay the angry feelings of my officers, N.C.O.s, and men, goaded almost to desperation by the att.i.tude adopted towards the battalion.
This anti-Jewish policy was directed not only against the Jewish Battalions, but also, in a flagrant manner, against the Jewish civil population, upon whom every indignity was poured; in fact, the British Military Administration made of the famous Balfour Declaration--the declared policy of the British Government--a byword and a laughing stock.
Early in 1919 the Chief Administrator then in office in Palestine, the man who represented the British Government, offered a public insult to the Jews at a Jewish Concert, by deliberately sitting down and ordering his staff to do the same when the Hatikvah, the Jewish national hymn, was being sung, while, of course, all others were standing. This was as deliberate an insult as could be offered to the feelings of any people.
England must be in a bad way when a man such as this is appointed to represent her as Governor.
Judge Brandies, of the United States Supreme Court, visited Palestine about the time when these anti-Jewish manifestations were at their height, and was shocked and horrified at the un-English att.i.tude he saw adopted towards the Jews and all things Jewish.
I myself told him of the mockery of the Balfour Declaration as exemplified by the British Military Administration in Palestine, and said I thought it was a pity that Mr. Balfour had not added three more words to his famous utterance. The Judge asked me what words I meant, and I said they were that Palestine was to be a national home for ”the baiting of” the Jewish people!