(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
A serious situation which threatens the economic existence of 35,000 Jews in Poland has arisen due to the attitude of the Polish government.
The Jewish deputies Frostig, Hausner, and Wislicki, representing the Club of Jewish Deputies, recently carried on negotiations with the Minister of Finance and the Director of the Monopolies concerning the extension of the tobacco concessions of 3,000 Jews. A bill passed in the Polish Sejm requires that the concessions be taken away from the Jewish holders and given to Polish soldiers injured in the war. The bill, which was passed over the protest of the Jewish deputies and which threatens a great number of Jewish families with ruin, was not put into full operation due to the ruinous consequences which it might bring. On the pleas of the Jewish deputies, the date of the termination of the concessions was postponed until the end of March 1927.
The negotiations also involved the fate of another 4,000 Jewish tobacco and spirit concessionaries who would also be ruined by the immediate enforcement of the bill. The negotiations seemed to be drawing to a favorable close when suddenly they were interrupted in the last few days.
It is assumed that the government intends further postponing the issue to let the provisions of the bill go into effect automatically.
The method of the government officials in the matter which threatens to have serious consequences, has caused great embitterment in the Club of Jewish Deputies.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
