Hope Polish Committee for Trade Recovery Will Recommend Easing Sunday Closing Law for Sabbath Observ

The Commission appointed recently by the Ministry of Trade to recommend measures for improving Polish trade, including representatives of the Polish and Jewish Merchants’ organisations, has held a plenary meeting this week at which it drew up a number of recommendations to be submitted to the Government. One of the questions considered was that of the Compulsory Sunday Closing Law in force in Poland, and a number of the Polish members of the Commission, as well as the Government representatives, declared themselves in agreement with the Jewish representatives who urged that the law should be amended to enable Jews who observe Saturday to keep open for several hours on Sunday. The Jewish members of the Commission are hopeful that a recommendation in this sense will be accepted.

The Jewish merchants are engaged in a life and death struggle, Deputy Ignaci Jaeger, the Jewish Parliamentary representative from Lemberg, said speaking at the first Conference of the Commission for reviving Bolish trade held at the Ministry of Trade in March, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Trade and Commerce, M. Zarzicki. The Compulsory Sunday Closing Law which forces them to abstain from all activities for 2½ days in the week, but to pay taxes for the full working week, makes it a foregone conclusion what the end of the struggle will be. Whatever measures the Government takes to save Polish trade, it must include among them the alleviation of the hardships caused by the Compulsory Sunday Closing Law, so that Jews should be permitted to work and conduct their businesses on Sundays and Christian festivals from 7 till 10 in the morning and from 3 till 6 in the afternoon.