Russian Jewish Refugees Are Helped by Decision of Polish Supreme Court

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

An important decision affecting the status of a great number of Russian Jewish refugees living in Poland who have not yet acquired Polish citizenship was rendered by the Supreme Court here. These refugees, according to the decision, are not subjects of Soviet Russia and therefore aliens in Poland, but Staatenlose (men without a country).

The attitude of the administrative authorities hitherto with regard to the citizenship of aliens who were subjects of Czarist Russia and who now live in Poland, has been that they are not Staatenlose but are Soviet citizens. Accordingly such aliens were frequently expelled to Russian which was regarded as their country. Also, when they were granted Polish citizenship they were required to surrender their Soviet citizenship. When it was a question of military service, however, they were enrolled in the Polish army as persons who could not prove their foreign citizenship.

Repeated interventions were made by the Russian emigrant societies and by the Jewish deputies on the ground that the Soviet Government did not recognize them as Soviet citizens. The Ministry of the Interior contended, however, that it was impossible for it to take into account the interior regulations of Soviet Russian.

The Supreme Tribunal has now ruled that the decrees of the Soviet Central Executive Committee refusing Soviet citizenship to the Russian emigrants in Poland must be recognized by Poland, especially since Poland is in juridical relations with Russia and has recognized the Soviet Republic de jure.