Despite frequent assurances that former Sub-Carpathian Jews now in Czechoslovakia would be granted citizenship if they so desired, the Ministry of the Interior has now issued new instructions providing that only Jews who attended Czech or Slovak schools for at least three years may apply for Czechoslovak citizenship. The order also specifies that official proof of such attendance must be submitted, rather than statements by teachers or headmasters, which had been accepted previously.
Jewish circles here are mystified by the sudden reversal of policy. The privilege of choosing Czechoslovak citizenship was granted the Carpathian Jews only after many months of negotiations with the government. The reason for issuance of the new order is obscure, since most of the applications for citizenship have already been approved end only about 1,000 applicants remain. The Council of Jewish Communities in Bohemia and Moravia has protested to the Interior Ministry.
Meanwhille, Minister of Information Vaclav Kopecky has been attacked by Jewish and non-Jewish groups for allegedly slurring the Carpathian Jews in an address to a political meeting in the city of Teplicesanov. Replying to his crities, Kopecky said that he was not anti-Semitic, adding that he had criticized the Carpathian Jews only on the basis that some of them had entered Czechoslovakia from the Carpatho-Ukraine, which was ceded to Russia last year, and settled in the border districts, although they are not eligible for Czech citizenship.
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