“I have the honor to report that considerable controversy has followed the introduction into Parliament of the new Jew Bill. The Jewish and the Gentile press came to grips over it. The former printed articles by prominent Gentile Hungarians, many of the aristocracy, advancing

the argument that the Bill was contrary to the principles of Christianity, violated the Constitution, and was inhumane. The Gentile press stressed the inability of the Jews to assimilate, their practicing a doctrine of race defense, their inferior outlook on life, and their failure to accept the general principles of Christian morals, and it was predicted that the Jews would attempt sabotage to vitiate the effects of the Bill. Protests against the Bill were expressed in sermons delivered in the Budapest synagogues. [...]

Many see in the presenting of this drastic bill a clever move by Imrédy to steal the thunder of the Hungarian National Socialists, to produce per se a revulsion to anti-Semitic sentiment (because in wide circles it is considered un-Hungarian and unfair), and to make Hungary unattractive to the Jews of neighboring countries who would flee to it as a haven from persecution. [...]

In the last analysis, many responsible Hungarians are wondering what will become of the Jews, especially the poorer ones, when they are deprived of their means of livelihood. They feel that the Government is making a huge problem for itself by accelerating this problem without sufficient preparation. The German Minister told me that he did not think it possible for the Hungarians to carry on an anti-Semitic policy as they conceived it because, unlike Germany, there were no skilled Gentiles to replace the Jews.”