PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN GERMANY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3012, 19 February 1881, Page 2

PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN GERMANY.

[To the Editor op the Daily Telegraph.] Sir, —In a recent leader you have commented severely upon the deplorable controversy now occupying the German press, and you have since reprinted several extracts from other journals, all taking similar views on the question. You make it appear that the Germans, or a considerable portion of the nation, not merely do contemplate the re-enacting of the Jewish political disabilities, but moreover that the Jews are now actually subjected in the very metropolis to insults and indignities similar to those suffered by them in the last century. As such a state of things, if true, would be most discreditable to Germany, which can not be indifferent to me, although I am away from it more than three decades, you will kindly grant me the favor of your open column to state as concisly as possible the origin and progress of the " Judenhatze" (Jew-baitiog as the Jewish papers call it), as I have gathered it from German and other papers of different shades. Some seven or eight months ago a series of articles commenced to appear in the " Jahrbucher" (" Year Book") a publication similar to the Nineteenth Century, but with a much larger circulation, by Dr. Treitschke, the leading professor of modern history in the University of Berlin, and a radical mcmher of the Reichsrath, that created very marked attention all over Germany. The professor pointed to the rapidly growing wealth of the Jews in Germany, which under certain circumstances might result in great danger to the country. He showed that within ten years the Jewish

population in Berlin had increased from two to four per cent, principally by influx from Austria and Russian Poland ; further, that the Jews own fourteen per cent of the property, the bulk acquired very recently ; that the Jewish representation in Parliament and ia all offices of emolument is utterly out of proportion to their numbers ; that the Jews own and command a very large portion of the press, which they work for their own ends. The professor traces the rapid increase of wealth and influence, not only to the undeniable business qualities of the Jews, but principally to the fact that the Jews practically form a combination, each member assisting the other and buying in preference of each other. It is maintained that the German merchant and shopkeeper, who plods on singlehanded, has no chance against this powerful combination, and that in ten years hence the Jews will own probably twenty-five per cent of all property, and so on increasing. This would be no danger if the Jews were Germans in sentiment, and loved Germany as their fatherland with the devotion of a race rooted for centuries in the soil, but it is asserted that this is not the case ; that they are true cosmopolitans, and that the members of the wealthiest families are generally found established in business in the different European capitals—the Rothschilds to wit, who, although hailing from Frankfort, where the Prince of Hesse laid the ioundation of their fortune, have never considered themselves Germans. The professor asks what will be the position of Germany if, in the event of war with gome of her powerful neighbors, her rich cosmopolitan children should choose to supply her enemies with the sinews of war, extracted from Germany P It is pointed out that this is not an imaginary danger, as in 1870 a Syndicate of Jewish bankers in Germany was found out taking up a French loan, while the land of their birth was fighting for its very existence. England is fortunate in not having powerful neighbors, an invasion of the country ia next to impossible, while Germany enjoys the dangerous privilege of being placed in the very centre of Europe, almost surrounded by powerful neighbors, all armed to the teeth, who may Bpring at any time at her throat, and it is therefore of the greatest importance for Germany that she can rely at any time on the loyal support of all her children. An examination of the regimental musterrolls has unfortunately shewn that comparatively very few Jews have crossed the Rhine in 1870 as combatants. To prevent the danger pointed out by Treitschke, his followers are forming now in Berlin and other large towns associations pledged not to trade with Jews. This is the full extent of the persecution, no violence to persons or property having been committed, at least the reports of the law-courts don't show any. The members of the associations maintain that they merely meet the Jews with their own weapons, as the Jewish associations lead practically to the same result, although not organised for that purpose. The position taken by the Government appears unobjectionable. To an interpellation in the Prussian Parliament in November last Count Stollberg, the Prussian prime minister, replied "that the Government would neither bring in nor support any measure that in any way might interfere with the full political rights of the Jews, and that the Government had not been informed of any outrages committed upon Jews. Borne ot the leading men of all shades have expressed themselves during the debate adverse to the agitation, amongst them Mommsen, the Roman historian, and Professor Virchow, the great ethnologist and evolutionist, who, true to his text, will not interfere in the scramble, as the fittest will survive, no matter whether Teuton or Semite. The bulk of the middle-classes and the country districts have no sympathy with the agitation, although as a rule they do admit the correctness of Treitschke's premises, but they join Mommsen in the advice that the Jews should practice wisdom in time by opening their ring, by loosening their hold on the press, and by serving their turn in the army, instead of wriggling out of their obligations. If they do so, the anti- Jewish associations will be defunct in a few months.—l am, &C, Charles Weber. February 19, 1881.