A request that public opinion abroad be informed that the Roumanian government is now in complete control of the situation and will henceforth not permit any repetition of the anti-Jewish events was made yesterday of the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by Ion Lugojanu, acting for Premier Maniu.
In the course of an audience lasting more than an hour, M. Lugojanu frankly declared that “perhaps we were too lenient in the last few months in combating anti-Semitism but now we see that stricter measures are necessary and we are taking them. We have made sincere efforts to check anti-Semitism, but while any government can change the laws it cannot rid the people of their inherited traditions.
“Anti-Semitism was planted in our people by several previous governments and we cannot be held responsible for the thousands of anti-Semitic students or even for the officials whom previous governments inspired in their anti-Semitism. Neither can we dismiss 300,000 state officials in one day. All this requires time, but I assure you that our present policy is to free the country of anti-Semitism, to check the students’ agitation, and to bring the legal status of the Jews in our country to the highest point.”
To support his statements, M. Lugojanu pointed out that never had the Jews in Roumania had so many representatives in Parliament and in municipal and communal institutions as under the Maniu government. “Give us two or three years and anti-Semitism will be uprooted,” he concluded.
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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.
