Complains Minorities Had No Opportunity for Self Determination

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The principle of self-determination for the smaller nations and the national minorities proclaimed during the close of the World War and incorporated into the subsequent peace treaties, has as yet not had a fair chance of application in the case of the national minorities in Europe.

This argument was presented by Rabbi Nurock of Riga, member of the Latvian parliament at the session of the Interparliamentary Union consisting of members of parliaments in various countries. Addressing the conference when the question of the national minorities came up on the agenda, Rabbi Nurock declared that he speaks as the representative of the Jewish minorities who number millions. The terrible misery of the Jewish “staatenlose” (men without a country) the events in Roumania and similar occurrences remind one of the darkest times of the Middle Ages, he declared. The provisions in the national minorities treaties for the national and cultural self-determination are not being enforced in many countries which undertook this obligation, he stated.