Our great solicitor

Josiah C. Wedgwood and the Jews

Edición de la obra Our great solicitor

The present work discusses Josiah Wedgwood IV's attempts to serve Britain, Western ideals, industrial know-how, and democracy by supporting in particular the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and Palestine. Wedgwood was an advocate of the Jews and of persecuted peoples everywhere. Born in 1872, he was part of a long line of English independent thinkers. His ancestors - who made the family name synonymous with quality china - had supported the fight against Charles II in the seventeenth century, the case of the American colonists in the eighteenth century, and of abolitionists in the nineteenth century. Josiah fit the family mold perfectly - ever in the forefront of progressive thought, always advocating protection of the rights of man. It was his contention that wherever in the world Britain had a claim to influence events, it was her right and obligation to make sure that she did so. He felt it was a crime beyond reproach when Britain itself was part and parcel of any persecution. To Wedgwood - who sat in Parliament from 1906 until his elevation to the peerage in 1942 - Britain and liberty, England and opposition to oppression, went hand in hand. Appeasers who gave in to tyrants were beneath contempt; when they also refused to help suffering Jews within Germany, they were even worse. Britain had treaty rights to interfere on behalf of minorities in Germany and Poland. Wedgwood was constantly trying to get the government to exercise these treaty rights. He tried, too, at one point, to change the status of Palestine from a mandate to a Crown colony and ultimately into independent Jewish dominion within the empire. His efforts were not realized, however, and he later watched with horror as Jewish illegal immigrants were marched shackled through the streets of Palestine. His public advocacy of resistance to this, not excluding the use of force, sparked cries of denunciation in press and Parliament. But Wedgwood never bowed to the critics, claiming always that it was he who was within the traditions of Britain, not those who turned a blind eye to the plight of the Jews. Ultimately despairing of Britain living up to its obligations to the Jews, Wedgwood made an amazing wartime radio broadcast to America advocating that the United States take over the mandate as Britain had lost the will and moral fortitude to handle the job herself. On the home front, Wedgwood was appalled with the policy of restricting refugee immigration into Britain. He consistently maintained that persecuted Jews should be allowed into the country - that their coming would secure their protection and also strengthen England. When the Jews who had been allowed entry were rounded up and placed in internment camps, the aged Wedgwood once again proved himself their great solicitor, rallying for their cries to be answered. His methods were unpopular, and probably self-defeating. But for Josiah Wedgwood, the cause of the oppressed - not political or bureaucratic expedience - was paramount.