Jewish immigration to Biro-Bidjan has lagged 30 per cent behind schedule this year, it was disclosed today, and the Jewish population of the Jewish autonomous region in Soviet Siberia is actually 2,000 less than at the end of 1933.
“Of the 10,000 immigrants who should have been settled in Biro-Bidjan this year only 6,300 have been settled,” it was declared by Beris Trotzky, acting president of the Central Comzet, Government commission for settling Jews on land, addressing a Comzet conference here.
A few hundred more immigrants will probably arrive in the territory by the end of the year, he said, thus fulfilling the year’s program only by 70 per cent.
He ascribed the plan’s failure chiefly to slow progress in the erection of new houses for immigrants and the slow development of industrial life in the region. Officials entrusted with erection of houses have built 92 of the 900 scheduled for erection, he declared.
The Comzet has decided to take all necessary measures to carry out the 1937 settlement plan, Mr. Trotzky asserted.
Recently compiled figures show that the Jewish population of Biro-Bidjan is 23,000, or 2,000 less than at the end of 1933, although emigration from the region is reported no longer proceeding at any great rate.
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