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feared the “unrestricted entry” of all refugees: “Just as we don’t want too many Jews we
don’t want too many Chinese or Frenchmen for that matter.” Ironically, less than ten
thousand refugees were in Britain in July 1938. 60
Lord Beaverbrook’s Daily Express vocalized its opposition to Jewish immigration
in an editorial, “Shall All Come In?” Although the British public was moved by “some
sad stories of the persecuted Jews” it was necessary to ask “where will it end?”
“Powerful agitation” was at play in the United Kingdom seeking the admission of all
Jews “without question or discrimination.” Such a humanitarian policy would be
“unwise” as it could “stir up” domestic factions that “batten on anti-Semitic propaganda.”
Fearing that the nation would come under pressure to admit Jewish co-religionists from
Eastern Europe the paper concluded that “because we DON’T want anti-Jewish uproar
we DO need to show common sense in not admitting all applicants.” 61
Beaverbrook’s other paper, the Sunday Express, warned of the refugee Jewish
threat to the domestic economy and professions. Jews were “overrunning the country”
seeking the right to practice in the law, medicine and dentistry. Consequently, the British
professional class was driven to “resent their living being taken from them by immigrants
from foreign countries, whether they be Jew or gentile.” Continental Jews had
contributed to the rise of foreign anti-Semitism by being “too prosperous.” After all, “half
60 Tony Kushner and Katharine Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide: Global, National, and Local
Perspectives (NY: Frank Cass, 1999), 153, 401. Kushner noted that following the Russian Revolution of
1917 the British Government allowed the entry of 15,000 White Russians but barred the less “racially
desirable” Jews and Armenians.
61 Daily Express (London), March 24, 1938 cited in Theodore S. Hamerow, Why We Watched: Europe,
America and the Holocaust (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), 104.
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