Anti-jewish Outbreaks in Poland Continue: if Government Party Declares Against Student Movement We S

Anti-Jewish outbreaks took place again to-day in a number of towns throughout the country, but in most cases the police were able to keep them from developing into serious excesses.

The chief organ of the National Democratic Party, the “Gazeta Warszawska”, is furious with the Government Party for denouncing the anti-Jewish student movement, and in its issue to-day it threatens the Government that if its spokesmen and the various branches of the Government Party do not stop adopting resolutions against the student movement, “we shall over-whelm the Government by starting a big campaign in all the provincial parts of the country to expel the Jews living there, the result of which will be that all Jews will be driven out of the small provincial towns everywhere. For every resolution condemning the student movement, there will be a thousand resolutions demanding the expulsion of the Jews.”

At the end of the memorial services held to-day in the Warsaw churches for the National Democratic student, Stanislaw Waclawski, who was killed in the fighting at Vilna University, about 3,000 students held an open-air demonstration here, having been refused the use of the University Hall, where they had intended holding the meeting, and adopted a resolution calling for a determined economic boycott against the Jewish population. All the surrounding streets were guarded by strong forces of police to prevent the demonstrators starting anti-Jewish attacks. In the same way all the churches in which memorial services were held had been previously surrounded by bodies of police to keep the people who were attending the services from making a rush afterwards for the Jewish quarter.

Although the police vigilance was sufficient to prevent any serious clashes occurring in Warsaw to-day, several isolated attacks on individual Jews were made in a number of streets, but in most cases the assailants were arrested. The police also took into custody a number of people who were seen behaving in a suspicious manner, and who are believed to have been out in the streets for the purpose of taking advantage of any disturbances that might have occurred in order to loot Jewish shops.

The Warsaw Jewish Students’ Union announces that there are 120 names of Jewish wounded on its lists, 19 of whom are in a serious condition.

Memorial services for Stanislaw Waclawski were held in a large number of towns throughout Poland, the papers report to-day. In several cases they were followed by attacks on Jews. In the town of Lowicz, near Warsaw, for instance, about 800 school youths, headed by their teachers and by two priests, went through the streets throwing stones at Jewish houses and looting Jewish shops. Two Jews were injured. Panic-stricken Jews barred themselves in their houses, until the Self-Defence Force of the Jewish athletic organisation Maccabee drove back the rioters. The Jewish Community has made representations to the police, who have now restored order.

In the town of Wloclawek, also in the Warsaw area, a crowd of school youths last night attacked Jews in the streets. Three Jews sustained severe head injuries.

In Sosnowiece, where there was severe anti-Jewish fighting yesterday, several hundred school youths held an anti-Jewish demonstration to-day and went about smashing the windows of Jewish shops and the synagogues. A former Police Commissary of Sosnowiece has been identified as the leader of the local anti-Jewish disturbances. A policeman who tried to arrest the ex-Commissary was attacked and in the struggle his sword was broken.

The J.T.A. has been on the long-distance telephone to a number of towns in which memorial services for Stanislaw Waclawski have been held and has been informed that in nearly all cases the services passed without incident, and although demonstrations against the Jews generally followed, the police succeeded in keeping order.

Anti-Jewish demonstrations took place last night also in the big city of Lodz, both in the centre of the town and in several of the outer districts, and five of the demonstrators were arrested. In some of the Lodz churches the priests preached against the Jews from their pulpits, but few incidents occurred.

The Lodz District Court has ordered the headquarters of the local antisemitic organisation to be closed down.

In Cracow, the capital of Western Galicia, hooligans smashed the windows of Jewish houses and cafes, and then went on to smash the windows of the St. Bernard Church, afterwards starting an agitation that the Jews had attacked the church. Two Jewish youths have been arrested on the charge that they smashed the church windows.

The Metropolitan of Cracow has issued an appeal to his clergy and to all Catholics, in which he exhorts the population to keep the peace and not to allow themselves to be led away by acts of provocation committed against the Jews. The Metropolitan goes on to condemn those who are inciting the people against the Jews and demands that they should be punished.

The Jewish press here, particularly the “Najer Hajnt”, criticise the Government Party to-day for not taking a definite stand against the anti-Jewish movement. The Polish Socialist Party is accused in the Jewish papers of pursuing a double-faced policy, especially in choosing the present moment when the Jews are being beaten on all sides in order to criticise them for supporting the Government, which the Socialists oppose. “Unser Express” points out that even the pro-Government Party students in Cracow, in the course of their resolution condemning the anti-Jewish disorders, went on to complain in the very same resolution that the trouble is caused by the fact that there are too many Jewish students at the University, and added a demand for a numerus clausus.

The Maccabee Jewish Sports Organisation has issued an appeal to the Polish students to stop the anti-Jewish disturbances, pointing out that there are 70,000 young Jews organised in the Maccabee, who, if the attacks continue, are able and ready to hit back.