A blow to Jewish interests was dealt this week by the League of Nations in sanctioning the Franco-German agreement which drives the Saar Jews into exile.
The agreement, which is a result of secret negotiations between Germany and France, gives the Jews of the Saar one year to liquidate their businesses and move from the territory. This pact had been reached despite assurances given by the French government to Jewish delegations that the rights of Jews in the Saar will be made one of the major issues before the League if the region is turned over to Germany by the plebiscite next month.
Sanctioning of the agreement by the League provoked many protests on the part of Jewish organizations. The League for Defending Jewish Rights in Europe, of which Senator Justin Goddard is president, has submitted a formal memorandum of protest to the French government.
ENCOURAGED JEWS TO PROTEST THREAT
On no other occasion were Jewish leaders so misled by France as this time. While bargaining with Germany for the agreement which yielded to France $60,000,000, the French government was inspiring Jewish organization to flood the League of Nations with memorandums urging not to turn the Saar over to Germany before equality for the Jews there is guarantced by the Nazi government.
Promising to support the Jewish memorandums when they will be taken up by the League, the French government had in the meantime conducted silent negotiations with representatives of the Reich. The agreement now concluded is a complete victory for the Nazis and is considered by many a betrayal, on the part of France, of Jewish interests.
The 5,000 Jewish families in the Saar are now definitely doomed to migration. None of them will be able to remain in the Saar a year after next January. All of them will have to leave their homes and go into exile.
SIMILAR FATE IN SILESIA
The fate of the Saar Jews also may soon be shared by the Jews of Upper Silesia, a territory which will now be under the administration of the notorious Jewbaiter, Julius Streicher.
Though the rights of the Jews in Upper Silesia are guaranteed by Germany, under the supervision of the League of Nations, there is no doubt that Streicher will make the existence of the Jews unbearable as soon as he takes over the governorship of Silesia. The experience in Jew-baiting which Streicher has had in Franconia, where he made the life of the Jews bitter, will no doubt not be lost to him in Silesia.
The comparatively peaceful time which the Jews in Silesia enjoyed under the Nazis till now because of the decision of the League of Nations on the Bernheim petition may therefore be considered over. There is every ground to believe that Streicher will violate the decisions of the League of Nations with regard to the Jewish rights in Upper Silesia, especially since the League now has proven to be so helpless in compelling Germany to maintain Jewish rights in the Saar.
BORDERS CLOSED TO REFUGEES
This opens again the problem of migration. Very few countries today permit Jewish exiles to cross their borders. In France severe anti-alien legislation is being advocated and the deportation of many refugees is expected.
Voices are also being heard in England against “undesirable aliens.” Restrictions for entering Palestine also are becoming more and more evident. Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister made it clear this week in the British Parliament that the number of immigration visas to Palestine will be sharply reduced as a measure to counteract illegal immigration of Jews into Palestine.
Unprecedented precautions in checking Jewish immigration to Palestine were taken this week by the British government when it compelled Greece not to permit Jewish travelers to enter Greek territory without special permision from the central authorities in Athens. This is the first instance a stronger government exercised pressure upon a country of minor power to impose upon her the carrying out of anti-Jewish discriminations.
BRITISH CLAIM GREECE IS BASE
The British Legation in Athens, forcing the Greek government to close its borders to foreign Jews, argued that most illegal Jewish immigrants are smuggling their way into Palestine from Greece. This argument, which would be considered by any other government an insult to its independence, was swallowed by the Greeks without contradiction, and orders have been issued to all the Greek consulates abroad not to issue visas to Jews before inquiring at Athens in each case.
In connection with the anti-Jewish measures taken by the Greek government, it was disclosed this week that not less than 2,000 Jews have obtained Greek visas in Poland this year. The Greek consulate in Warsaw is now instructed to refrain from issuing visas to Jews proceeding to Greece or passing Greek territory in transit.
TRANSPORT PLANS ARE NULLIFIED
One cannot say that Greek commerce will benefit from this order. It is only recently that an increased navigation between Greek and Palestinian ports has developed. Plans were formulated for a passenger air service between Salonica and Haifa in view of the growing traffic between Palestine and Greece.
This traffic will no doubt decline to the very minimum, now that foreign Jews are not permitted even to pass through Greece. Italian steamship lines will remain in control of transportation of Jews from Europe to Palestine.
HULEH PROJECT BRIGHTENS HORIZON
Perhaps the most important achievement in Palestine during the last few years was the acquisition this week of the Huleh territory by Jews. Located at the Palestine-Syrian border, this territory contains of approximately 40,000 acres of land, most of which needs extensive drainage. It is, however, estimated that the entire work of draining the land will be completed within three years. Then not less than 8,000 Jewish families will be settled on the soil, which experts believe will be very fertile and especially good for extensive colonization.
The entire project of acquiring the land and draining it is financed by the Palestine Land Development Company, the Association of Jewish Farmers in Palestine and the Palestine Labor Bank. It is hoped that the Jewish Colonization Association (ICO) also will become interested in financing the enterprise.
ICA WORK IN RUSSIA BANNED
The work of the Jewish Colonization Association this week suffered a blow in Russia, when the Soviet government suddenly ordered the Moscow office of the association to liquidate its colonization activities in the Jewish autonomous regions in the Ukraine.
This order came after ten years of work which the ICA had invested in Russia under the Soviet regime, spending many millions of dollars there. The Soviet government explains the ousting with the fact that the ICA has itself practically been liquidating its activities for the last few years and instead of investing money in Russia it has been engaged in collecting debts from Jewish colonists and taking the money out abroad.
The liquidation of the ICA in Russia will have no effect upon the Jewish colonists settled in the regions where the ICA had been operating. These colonists have long been collectivized by the Soviet government. They have been receiving from the government much larger funds than from the ICA. As a matter of fact they have long been more under the Soviet administration rather than under the ICA administration.
RESENTED TAKING OF COLONY CONTROL
The ICA resented very much the fact that control of the Jewish colonies had been taken out of her hands despite the funds spent by her for promoting their colonies. This resentment was, however, taken by the Soviet government very coolly. Believing that “taxation without representation” is not the proper principle, the ICA little by little began to withdraw from its activities in the Jewish colonies, thus causing the break between her and the Soviet authorities this week.
POLES THREATEN NO JEWS IN PARLIAMENT
A definite break between the Polish government and Jewish members of the Polish Parliament was seen this week in the report that constitutional changes soon will be made which will prevent Jews from becoming members of Parliament.
This will be the first time since Poland obtained its independence that Jews will have no voice in the Polish Parliament.
The Polish government seems to be very much irritated by the speech which Dr. Thon, Jewish Parliamentarian, recently delivered in the Polish Sejm, charging before the entire world that Poland is mistreating its 3,000,000 Jews economically as well as legally and has reduced a million Jews to beggary.
Partly because of Dr. Thon’s speech and the general anti-Jewish sentiment now prevailing in Poland, the Polish government seems to be determined to silence the Jewish voice. The Polish government does not, however, realize that Jews abroad are well-posted on anti-Jewish discriminations in Poland; also, that non-Jewish representative bodies as well as the world’s leading newspapers are quite well-informed about the status of Jews in Poland today.
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.
