Anglo-jewish Body Reports on Situation in Roumanla, Sees Patience Warranted

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The position of the Jews in Roumania is taken up again in a report of the Joint Foreign Committee, representing the Board of Jewish Deputies and Anglo-Jewish Association.

The Committee, the report said, had considered a number of reports relating to various aspects of the Jewish question in Roumania. Except for one riot in the University of Bucharest, and two raids on Jewish cemeteries, there have been no antisemitic disorders in Roumania during the past month. The Government acted promptly after the University outbreak, by forbidding all meetings of students. The action of the Bucharest University in suspending a large number of students implicated in the recent anti-Semitic riots also had a pacifying effect. Of the two hundred students sent down by the police for trial by court-martial at Bucharest, Jassy and Cluj, only twenty-eight have been so far convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from six months to ten days. Nine appeals to the supreme military tribunal have been rejected and in four cases sentences have been reduced. Notwithstanding the small number of convictions and the moderation of the punishments, they seem to have caused great indignation among the general body of students, and the Roumanian Students League has published an insolent manifesto demanding the immediate release of all prisoners and threatening the Government with reprisals. Nothing has been done by the Government to deal with the more deep-rooted causes of the anti-Jewish movement. The great majority of the Jewish students still abstain from attending lectures at the Universities, owing to the want of adequate police protection. On the other hand the Government continue to make reassuring deciarations, and in this respect they find a large measure of support among the party leaders and in the press. In view of this hopeful situation, and the advice received from leading Jews in Roumania, the Committee are of opinion that the continuation of an attitude of patience and watchfulness is warranted. They will, however, continue to urge upon the Roumanian Government the policy of reform indicated in their last letter to M. Titulesco. Meanwhile, they have communicated their correspondence with the Roumanian Government to the Foreign Office and the League of Nations.

In consultation with the Refugees Section of the League of Nations, the Jewish Colonisation Association and the American Jewish Committee, the report proceeds, steps have been taken to allay the anxieties of the Jews in Turkey caused by recent events in that country. The Turkish Government has consented to suspend the proposed expulsion of the Russian refugees, of whom 750 are Jews, for another year, on condition that an effort is made to evacuate a certain proportion of them. In order to carry out this agreement, an Advisory Committee has been established in Constantinople, to which the Jewish Colonisation Association has been invited to send a delegate. It is estimated that the cost of emigrating and re-settling the refugees will be at least £ 36,000. Towards this sum £ 20,000 has been raised in the United States. The estimates for dealing with the Jewish refugees are on a somewhat larger scale, but it is hoped that as the majority of them are old settlers in Turkey, and consequently not strictly refugees, it may be possible to deal with this aspect of the problem by an outlay of about £ 10,000.