Several Russian Communist organizations in the Ukraine and Crimea have recently passed resolutions with regard to the commencement of Jewish colonization work in those regions.
The Ukrainian Commissariat of Agriculture decided to allot out of its colonization reserves a strip of land in the neighborhood of the existing Jewish colonies for settlement by Jewish city-dwellers, who are residents of the Ukraine.
The District Committee of the Communist Party of the Crimea, adopted a resolution stating: 1, that it was not opposed in principle towards the settlement of Jews on the land in the Crimea; 2, that the settlement must be affected on the free lands of the Crimean Republic; 3, that the size of the colonization work is to be determined by representatives of
the party together with representatives of the committees for the settlement of Jews on the land.
The Odessa Government Committee of the Communist Party decided to assist in every possible way the removal of Jews from to the cities to the land; and has already sent instructions to that effect to its provincial authorities.
These decisions and measures taken by the various Communist groups have as their purpose the removal of the difficulties which were encountered by Jews anxious to settle on the land. Some of the authorities place obstacles in the way of Jewish applicants for land, misinterpreting the Soviet law concerning the division of the land. The law states that preference in the distribution is to be given to those who were farm workers before the Revolution. This rule was applied, however, too energetically, with the result that it was practically impossible for Jews to get any land.
The “Emes,” the organ of the Jewish Communists in Moscow, demands that a central organization be created for the purpose of sup revising the Jewish colonization work in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. According to the plan of the paper, all Russian Soviet Republics, as well as the Jews, should be represented in the central body.
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