I Am No Longer in the Political Game and Journalists Are at Liberty to Attack Me Says M. Vayda Jokin

I am no longer playing in the political game and journalists are at liberty to attack me, M. Vayda-Voyvod, the former Minister of the Interior, said jokingly to a correspondent of the Hungarian-language Jewish organ “Uj Kelet”, which appears in Cluj, the capital of the province of Transylvania, which before the war was part of Hungary, M. Vayda and the ex-Premier, M. Maniu, being the leaders of the Transylvanian Roumanian Nationalist Party.

The “Uj Kelet” representative went to M. Vayda to question him with regard to the accusation which has just been made against him in the “Miscarea”, the organ of the Youth section of the Liberal Party, not only that he was the inspirer and leader of the antisemitic movement in Roumania during the time that he was Minister of the Interior, which has been made repeatedly in the past, and that the entire movement of the antisemitic terrorist organisations, the Iron Guard and the Archangel Michael was maintained by him financially and otherwise, but that even now, living in Cluj, he is still continuing to support this antisemitic terrorist activity. When M. Mihalache, the present Minister of the Interior, (who was M. Vayda’s colleague as Minister of Agriculture in the Maniu Government) took office, the paper asserts, he demanded details of this activity, but M. Vayda refused to give it to him.

M. Mihalache saw the King to-day, and presented to him a detailed report on the enquiry which has been made into the activities of the Iron Guard and the Archangel Michael. The King, it is stated, was greatly impressed by the gravity of the disclosures, and asked the Minister to continue his investigations and to take all necessary measures to destroy the subversive antisemitic movement.

The “Uj Kelet” says that it has learned that M. Marin, the Director of the Government Timber Factory “Visou”, near Borsha, has been found to have been implicated in the antisemitic terrorist movement which culminated in the burning down of hundreds of Jewish houses in Borsha last July. The Government, it states, is taking action against Marin.

M. Vayda-Voyvod adopted the same bantering tone when he was accused at the time he was Minister of the Interior, of being engaged in promoting the antisemitic movement, even to the extent of having a notorious leader of the antisemitic student movement as his Chef de Cabinet, to keep him in touch with the movement. It is perfectly true, he said with a chuckle in an interview with the J.T.A. I am Professor Cuza’s confidential agent. I take my orders from Cuza. I am also the confidential agent of the Freemasons and the separatist Rabbis who are trying to break up the Jewish communities. But I wonder why they did not discover all that before I became a Minister. When I was in Opposition, fighting for justice for everybody, including the Jews, the newspapers attacked me as the slave of the Jews, and the paid servant of the Jewish banker, Aristide Blanc. To-day I am attacked as an antisemite. I suppose a man in public life must expect to be attacked no matter what he does. But speaking frankly, he added, I prefer as Minister of the Interior, to have the reputation of an antisemite rather than a philo-semite. Because if the antisemites regard me as a philo-semite there will be no holding them. They will do everything they can to cause trouble.

WHEN M. VAYDA DENOUNCED ROUMANIAN ANTISEMITISM: WORSE THAN IN CZARIST RUSSIA HE COMPLAINED AFTER ORADEA MARE ACCUSING LIBERAL GOVERNMENT OF SHIELDING GUILTY

It is interesting to recall that in 1928 after the serious antisemitic devastations in Oradea Mare, M. Vayda-Voyvod, then one of the leaders of the Opposition, accused M. Duca, the Minister of the Interior, who is now the leader of the Liberal Opposition, and a declared friend of the Jews, of being responsible. You sent agents-provocateurs to Oradea Mare, he alleged. The only thing that happened is that they went beyond their instructions. It is a regular system of yours. You always shield the guilty.

M. Duca replied angrily to the charge that there was not a word of truth in it. What interest has the Government, he asked, in quarrelling with the Jews of Roumania and abroad? We have never tolerated this type of super-nationalism which is madness, and to which the Jassy Prefect Manciu fell a victim. The hooliganism of the students is compromising healthy nationalism. If you have any proof to back up your charges, produce them:

In an interview with the “Lupta” about the same time, M. Vayda said:

The desecration of synagogues was not allowed even in Czarist Russia. Such acts of vandalism have not been known for centuries. When the Governments of the Czens wanted to divert public opinion they organised pogroms, and Jews were attacked, and even murdered. As far as the doors of the synagogues the pogromists were given a free hand, but if anyone dared to cross the threshold of the House of God, the Cossacks themselves came to the defence of the synagogue. So that what was not permitted even to the pogromists in Czarist Russia has been tolerated in our country in the year 1927. And the blame lies with the Liberal Government which was unable to maintain law and order. The events in Oradea Mare will have terrible results for us all over the world. The credit of the country has been damaged for a very long time ahead. What I want to know is whether those who gave permission for the Congress and provided the students with their expenses and with special trains for their journey, still have sufficient moral authority to punish the guilty.