| Main Performers | Rt. Hon. Viscount Sankey (Presiding),
Rev. Arthur Hinsley,
Rt. Hon. L S Amery,
Rev. Dr Robert Bond (Moderator of the Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches),
Lady Violet Bonham-Carter,
Rt. Hon. Herbert Morrison,
Rev. Dr J H Hertz, Chief Rabbi,
Major Rt. Hon. Sir Archibald Sinclair MP,
Rev. William Temple - speakers |
| Set List | Speeches
Resolution:
'That this great meeting of British citizens, representative of all religious bodies and all schools of political thought, strongly protests against the religious and racial persecution which is taking place throughout Germany, and pledges itself to support every legitimate form of action likely to alleviate the sufferings of all the victims of such persecution.' |
| Performance Notes | "MASS PROTEST AT PERSECUTION.
ALBERT HALL MEETING.
Leaders of all the churches and political parties will appear together on one platform at a demonstration against religious and racial persecution in Germany to be held at the Royal Albert Hall on Dec. 1."
(The Daily Telegraph, 22 November 1938)
""OUR SHARE OF RESPONSIBILITY"
FOR WRONGS TO GERMANY.
More than 8,000 people attended a demonstration in the Albert Hall last night to protest against the religious and racial persecution in Germany. Every seat in the hall was taken, and hundreds of applications could not be met.
...It unaninmously pledged itself to support "every legitimate form of action likely to alleviate the sufferings of the victims."
...Mr Lloyd George, Mr Winston Churchill and Viscount Cecil were among those who sent messages of support."
(The Daily Telegraph, 2 December 1938)
The programme has a separate booklet attached entitled 'The Plight of German Jewry' by Neville Laski, including messages of support for the demonstration.
'The Archbishop of York, speaking last night at the Royal Albert Hall at a national demonstration against religious and racial persecution, said that the present regime in Germany was to a large extent the creation of ourselves and our Allies. Things were done after the War of which we could only think with shame.
Lord Sankey who presided, said that no one desired to interfere with the social, political or industrial organization of the Germans. But when the conduct of any man, nation or political party was such as to revolt the conscience of the civilized world they were bound in the discharge of their Christian duty to make a protest.'
(The Times, 2 December 1938)
Speech by Lady Violet Bonham Carte (FOCUS - A Footnote to the History of the Thirties, Eugene Spier, 1963):
"It needed great cause to bring together on one platform the men you see before you here today Conservatives, Liberals,representatives of the great trade unions, and, last but not least, Mr. Winston Churchill, that brilliant political phenomenon who eludes all categories and defies classification, a dynamic force which cannot be labelled.
"What has brought them here together? Not a great cause alone, but what we feel to be a vital emergency. Whatever our differences may be, we feel the common need to declare a common faith, to defend that which is the common heritage of us all,the freedom we have won, and mean to keep, in the teeth of every challenge from within and from without, and peace which alone makes such freedom possible.
"There are two kinds of peace, and there are two ways of getting them. You can get peace of a kind and for a time by surrender to violence. That is the peace which is sincerely advocated by non-resisters at home-and as sincerely by dictators abroad. Or you can get peace by the resolute enforcement of law based on justice. That is the peace for which we stand tonight. "You have heard why at this time we feel these things to be imperilled. Today we see a world which has put back the clock,a world which is reeling backwards away from law-away from freedom-back to the blind anarchy of force. Wherever we look we see nations turning into armies before our eyes. The tragedy of Spain which we watch from hour to hour with helpless horror, is in itself a defeat for civilisation.
"In this last year alone we have seen treaties torn up wholesale, solemn pledges dishonoured by great nations, Locarno violated, the League Covenant flouted and set at nought. We have seen the triumph of the Italian aggressor and the agony of his victim. In that struggle the public opinion of the whole civilised world was ranged against the aggressor. What was the use ? Public opinion proved powerless against poison gas.
"I think the lessons we have learned from these defeats of law is that it is no good passing judgement unless you are ready to enforce it. It is no good giving a great moral lead if it is to be followed by a rapid physical scuttle. Justice cannot rule the world armed with the scales alone. In her other hand she must hold a sword. Unless we, the free democracies of the world who are still loyal members of the League, are prepared to stand together and to take the same risks for justice, freedom and peace as others are prepared to take for the fruits of aggression, then our cause is lost and the gangsters will inherit the earth.
"But that day is not yet. We have not come here today to bewail the past. What can we do ? First, we must be strong, but strength alone is not enough. To arrn in isolation would be lunacy, if it were not fortunately impossible. We cannot isolate ourselves. Even if we wished to leave the world along the world will not leave us alone. British rearrnament must not be a mere blind throw of the die of force, it must be our contribution to the great collective front against tyranny and aggression, a free man's front which all who will may join, which none may dare to challenge.
"Next we must make clear to the world without delay, and before immediate peril arises, that on this front we stand. Except in regard to France and Belgium nobody knows where we stand today or indeed whether we stand anywhere at all, because we do not seem to know ourselves.
"I believe that the greatest single step towards peace in Europe we can take today, is to make it crystal clear that we stand together with the other free and peace-loving nations of the world against aggression, one for all and all for one. Wasn't that how the great trade union movement in this country won battle after battle for justice for the workers ? What is a trade union but collective security in action ? Let us apply it with the same loyalty and courage in the international field.
"Let us remember that in this issue British leadership can do more perhaps than that of any other nation in the world. With the exception of France we are the only great democracy left in Europe, the only great and powerful nation which has preserved intact its priceless heritage of freedom. In this country we take our freedom as much for granted as the air we breathe. We can vote as we like. We can think and believe what we like. We can say what we like in Parliament, at the Albert Hall or, if you prefer it, at the top of our voices in Hyde Park every Sunday afternoon. And it is on this diversity of thought, and its free expression, out of the best that every race and class and creed can give, that we have built up the greatest empire, the strongest and most stable constitution that exists in the world today.
"Can we imagine living in a land in which free thought and speech are treachery to the state, where the human mind is sent to prison, clapped into a strait-jacket like a lunatic, in which one may not criticise a work of art, where books are read to order, written to order, burnt to order, in which to hate to order is a patriotic duty, and race may be a crime even in a helpless Jewish child, a crime to be expiated in daily suffering humiliation and degradation ?
"That is the European culture and civilisation that we are told must be protected against the dangers of Communism. What is the difference between them? Both are a denial of human rights.
To both alike we say : "You shall not pass here." Racial persecution, class hatred, the slavery of the mind, these hideous portents, have no place among us, no place in the life and liberties of this country. And that life, those liberties we shall defend and hold, not for ourselves alone but as a trust for civilisation. Let us prove, as prove we can, that democracy, that great army that needs no uniform, is not played out, that those who love peace above all things, do not lack the will and the courage to defend it. Let us remember that the great enduring victories of all times have not been won by mercenaries or slaves, but by free men who could draw the sword of the- spirit, free men united as one soul in a great cause. The cause is here. For some of us it is the one cause still left worth dying for. For all it is worth living for and winning today."
Less than a year after this speech criticising the government's policy of appeasement, Britain declared war on Germany. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1938/72) |