(By our London Correspondent.)
“We have found a great deal of difficulty in dealing properly with the demands of the Jews of Lithuania,” the Lithuanian Premier, Professor Voldemaras, who is now on an official visit to London, said in the course of an exclusive interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent today, “because of the fact that these demands were not presented to us as the unanimous demands of the Jewish population in Lithuania. It has been hard for us sometimes,” he said, “to find out exactly where the truth lies as between the conflicting claims of the Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jewish factions. If they would only get together at some kind of a congress or conference and first come to a definite agreement among themselves that would impress us as the real sentiment of the great mass of Jews, it would be so much easier for us to be fair all round.”
Speaking of the complaints made by Lithuanian Jews against the rigorous application of the Sunday Closing Law, the Premier said that the law is subject to a good deal of elastic interpretation and a great deal depended upon the view taken in each individual case. “I, for instance,” he stated, “looked into a number of cases that came to my attention, and I found it quite possible to place a liberal construction upon the letter of the law without in the slightest degree violating its spirit. Of course, by following the letter of the law too closely hardship may be caused unnecessarily.”
Turning to the Jewish school question in Lithuania, the Premier said that they had handled this in the way they did because there were too many schools carried on the budget that failed to satisfy even the most elementary requirements for which they were intended; for instance, they had found a number of schools carried on the budget that did not have even text books for their pupils. It was only fair to admit on the other hand, that a few instances had come to his attention in which non-Jews had been appointed headmasters of Jewish schools, which was absurd. In all these cases the defects were remedied as soon as attention was directed to them. As for the university, there were no restrictions whatsoever in regard to the admission of Jews and it was a fact that in the Medical Faculty of the Lithuanian State University over 70 per cent of the students were Jews. He hoped that this was sufficient proof that the doors of the Lithuanian University are open to the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, he added, it showed that there was an overproduction in a profession already crowded, and it might be to the advantage of the Jews if they sought more openings in other professions, such as engineering.
“There is nothing in our laws,” the Premier went on, “to prevent a Jew from reaching any rank in the army and we have had quite a number of Jewish volunteers very frequently. The same applies to the civil service, although it must be pointed out that the emoluments of the service are not so lucrative as to attract the type of Jew who can get on much better in private occupations, and this probably accounts more than anything else for the fact that we do not have many Jews in our civil service, since the law, as I said before, doe not place any obstacles in the way of their employment in Government institutions.”
With regard to the suggestions made that there may be a definite attempt on the part of lower officials who are antagonistic to the existing Government in Lithuania to cause it difficulties by deliberate persecution of the Jewish population of Lithuania, Professor Voldemaras said that, while it was hard to prove this, the possibility of such an attitude among certain lower officials was by no means excluded, and he was bearing it in mind in his efforts to re-organize the governmental apparatus and would not fail to take drastic measures wherever cases of this kind became evident.
Professor Voldemaras concluded by declaring his firm belief that the Jews would continue to remain useful partners in the upbuilding of the Lithuanian State and that while there were extremists and extreme demands among all peoples, as well as among the Jews, he relied upon the sensible elements to do their full share of co-operation with him and the Government of Lithuania to insure a brighter future for all citizens.
The second annual convention of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences will open on June 9, at the True Sisters Building, New York City.
Professor Herman Struck will deliver the principal address.
The guests of honor of the Academy will be Messrs Enrico Glicenstein, Leopold Pillchowski and Herman Struck.
The sessions will continue on Sunday morning.
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivered the baccalaureate sermon at Bryn Mawr College on Sunday night.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
