[Grahamstown Trial]

The attached files contain the transcript of the fifth day (16.07.1934) of the "Grahamstown Trial". This case deals with a crude forgery by Harry Victor Inch (leader in the Eastern Province of the South African Grey Shirts Movement), of the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion and a Jewish world conspiracy. The newspaper "Die Rapport" published a document (in an Afrikaans version on 6 April and in the original English version on 13 April) allegedly stolen by Mr. Inch from the Western Road Synagogue in Port Elizabeth. This fake document includes both a rather vague and a very detailed Jewish "Plan of Attack", which appears to be a record of an address delivered by the rabbi to the members of the local Jewish community. On the fifth day of trial testimonies were given by; Harry Infeld (the principal of the Hebrew School in Port Elizabeth), Charles Fairweather Davidson (a clerk on the human resources department of the South African Railways & Harbours), Marcus Lazarus (son of Mark Lazarus and the secretary of the Marxian Football Club), Claude Herbert Cotton (the nephew of the only surviving trustee of the Western Road Synagogue and the Secretary of B.M. Cotton & Co., Ltd.), Leopold Simmons (the director of B.M. Cotton & Co., Ltd.), Mortimer Carne (the chairman of the South African Party Central Division and a regular attendant of the Western Road Synagogue), David Jaconson (a member of the Western Road Synagogue), Leonard Benjamin Marks (a member of the Port Elizabeth Hebrew Congregation), Sidi Hallis (a member of the Western Road Synagogue), Jacob Kaplan (a member of the Western Road Synagogue), Samuel Kaplan (a member of the Western Road Synagogue), Mary Hawkins (the cleaning lady of the Western Road Synagogue), Thomas Charles White (the deputy mayor of Port Elizabeth), Alexander Peter John Wares (a member of Parliament of Port Elizabeth Central), Frederick William Cooper (a librarian of the Port Elizabeth Public Library), Jacobus Ernst Potgieter Terblanche (a farmer in the district of Aberdeen), Adam Schoeman (who was present at the Grey Shirts meeting in Aberdeen) and Ebenhaezer Fourie (who was present at the said meeting as well). The witnesses were interrogated by both judge T.L. Graham and judge C. Gutsche and cross-examined by the defendants. Due to the large number of witnesses interrogated on the fifth day of trial, representatives of both parties were limited to asking only very basic questions about the synagogue, the meeting in Aberdeen and Jewry in general - without any in-depth or lengthy interrogations.

Interrogation (1) -- Interrogation (2) -- Interrogation (3)