WHERE TO SETTLE THE JEWS [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. Vladimir de Korostovetz is not justified in drawing the conclusion from my article that " the treatment of non- Russian populations in the U.S.S.R. is ideal and hardly could be bettered." The Soviet authorities themselves would prob- ably be the first to admit that conditions not only in the Ukraine, but also throughout the Union are still very far from perfect ; even though, as I said, the people are much-better off and better educated than ever before. Similarly, the treat- ment of non-British populations within the British Empire (as in Trinidad for example) might be improved to a point where the people were far more prosperous than ever before, yet still leave considerable room for further improvement. Ideal conditions which " hardly could be better " belong to Utopia, and the Soviet Union is still very far from being Utopia. Similarly, Christian nations are still very far from establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, even after nearly two thousand years instead of only twenty-one. In my opinion, however, rapid progress towards better conditions is taking place in the Soviet Union.
I am not of those who think that Nazi persecution of Jews is unprecedented—as persecution. According to a book by the Chief Rabbi in England, Dr. J. H. Hertz (A Decade of Woe and Hope), three million Jews of the Ukraine were in i919 and 5920 " handed over, helpless and hopeless, to murder and dishonour . . . by the wild hordes of Denikin, Petlura, Grigorieb, Makhno, and other bandits, raging like wild beasts amid the defenceless Jewries of South Russia. . . . Wholesale slaughter and violation, drownings, and burnings and burials alive, became not merely commonplaces, but the order of the day." And Sir Horace Rumbold, then H.M. Minister at Warsaw, is quoted as saying that these massacres in the Ukraine " can find, for thoroughness and extent, no parallel except in the massacre of the Armenians." Another writer, E. Heifetz, in his book The Slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919, tells us that only the Soviet troops preserved the Jews from complete annihilation. As soon as Soviet troops were forced to retire, the pogroms began again in the territory left behind. It may be noted that Great Britain was supporting General Denikin against the Soviet at that time with money and supplies, and even by conferring on him the Order of the Bath.
What is unprecedented is the deliberate adoption by Nazi Germany of racial persecution as a policy of State.
On the question of settling Jews in the U.S.S.R., there are too many considerations for me to deal with them adequately here. But anyone who is sufficiently interested will find the question dealt with in detail in the January issue of Russia To-Day (p. s), which can be obtained for twopence from 8 Red Lion Square, London, W.C. z.—Yours faithfully,
The Old Rectory, Harescombe, Glos. HUGH P. VOWLES.
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