Bulgaria Issues Sweeping Curbs on Jews; Bans ‘secret’ Lodges

The Bulgarian Cabinet has adopted a sweeping law barring Jews from Government, municipal and army service and limiting them in professions according to their population ratio, the German wireless reported from Sofia today, pointing out that the decree "for the first time introduces anti-Jewish measures on a large scale in Bulgaria."

The anti-Jewish curbs were part of a bill "for protection of the nation" which was passed yesterday, the German report said, and which also bans organizations, lodges and clubs "of an international and secret character" and provides for measures against "dis-integrating anti-State propaganda."

Interior Minister Gabrovsky was quoted as commenting on the measure in a press statement, that the Bulgarian nation had preserved the purity of its race to a high degree such as few peoples in Europe could claim for themselves and that the new bill therefore coincided with "the aims of the State and the people."

The report aroused speculation among observers here, who pointed out that such a measure would indicate an intensification of German influence in Bulgaria and a corresponding weakening of Soviet influence.

The anti-Jewish section of the bill, according to the German wireless determines who is a "Jew" and who a "semi-Jew" stipulates that persons of Jewish descent may not hold posts in communal or State services may not enter the army and are barred from owning land. Their admission to the free professions will be limited to a figure corresponding to the proportion of Jews in the population.

Persons of Jewish descent are prohibited from working as authors and journalists or in the film and theatrical businesses. Their expulsion from these fields will be carried out "within a given period of time." Persons of Jewish descent may not employ Bulgarian servants. Violations of these regulations will be severely punished, according to the German report.