Employment of Aliens in Lithuania: Legislative Dispositions Directed Only Against Foreigners Who Ent

I am now in receipt of official information from my Government, M. Kajeckas, Acting Charge d’ Affaires at the Lithuanian Embassy in London, has just written to Mr. J. M. Rich, the Secretary of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Jewish Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, confirming the fact that the legislative dispositions in respect of the application of the new Lithuanian Law relating to the employment of foreigners are directed only against foreigners who have entered Lithuania since July 28th., 1930.

From a copy of the Lithuanian text of the statement issued to the press by the Minister of Home Affairs, it appears that the enactment prohibiting the issue of labour permits to foreigners after January 1st., 1932, is applicable to foreigners who entered Lithuania after July 28th., 1930, and have not obtained special permission to enter the country and discharge duties as indispensable and irreplaceable specialists in some branch of trade or industry.

Foreigners who reside permanently in the country and had work before July 28th., 1930, will be able to obtain labour permits hereeafter. In other words, the decree in question should be regarded as an intimation to employers not to engage fressh foreign labour, I trust, the Attache concludes, that the foregoing authoritative declaration will serve to resolve any remaining doubts as to the scope and application of the aforesaid law.

The letter from the Attache refers to the assurance given by the Lithuanian Minister of the Interior to Mr. Jacob Landau, the Managing Director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, (given in the J.T.A. Bulletin of March 10th.) that the emplcyment restrictions would be enforced only against such aliens who came into Lithuania after July 1929, and would not apply to anyone who was resident in the country before that date. The date now mentioned, July 28th., 1930, means that people who came into the country for a whole year after that date will still be unaffected by the employment restrictions of the new law.

Since most Jewish non-citizens in Lithuania have been resident in Lithuania for many years, it was pointed out at the time the Lithuanian Government gave its assurance through the J.T.A., which succeeded in allaying the extreme apprehension to which the new law had given rise among the Jews of Lithuania, they will therefore not be affected by the restrictions.

The talk which Mr. Landau and Mr. Smolar have had on behalf of the Jewish Telographic Agency with the Minister of the Interior is unquestionably of immense importance, Mr. R. Rubinstein, the editor-in-chief of the Kovno Jewish daily, the “Yiddishe Stimme” wrote in an editorial at the time. It has cleared up many vital aspects of the complicated question of labour permits. It has dispelled the heavy cloud which has been hanging over the heads of thousands of Jews. A few days ago, we quoted from an article which had appeared in the “Eidas”, the official Government organ, on the need of enforcing labour permits for aliens, and we showed how the official paper passed over in complete silence that question which has been causing us so much disquiet and anxiety, what is going to happen to those aliens who have no citizenship at all, the so-called Staatenlose, who have lived in Lithuania for years, and who, like other aliens, are affected by the police notification that from January 1st., 1932, aliens are not to be allowed to be employed in Lithuania. We have no idea why it was, but it so happened that up to now we could get no clear answer to this question from official quarters. They put us off with indefinite statements committing them to nothing at all. They assured us that things were not as bad as we imagined, and that it would turn out to be all right. This indefiniteness and ambiguity only added to the disquiet and fear among the Jewish families affected. And meanwhile the police got on with their job of collecting signatures from the Staatenlose, pledging themselves not to attempt to earn their living after January 1932. It is only now that we hear the Minister of the Interior declare clearly and officially that the edict will not affect those aliens who have lived permanently in Lithuania. These aliens will continue to receive labour permits. That is a tremendously important statement. It puts an end to all misunderstandings and fears.