Hungarian Minister Leads Campaign to Oust Jews from Last Economic Positions

Stricter anti-Jewish measures in the fields of commerce and industry in Hungary, which will supersede the provisions of the so-called “Third Jewish Law,” are expected to be taken by the new Hungarian Premier, Nicholas von Kallay, as soon as Parliament passes the bill for a speedy and complete expropriation of Jewish agricultural resources. it was reported today from Budapest.

The report, published in the Hungarian press and broadcast by the Budapest radio, states that the so-called Baross Union, the association of anti-Semitic merchants, founded some time ago in Hungary, has again come to prominence since Kallay assumed the premiership and is now conducting a campaign to oust the Jews from the few economic positions which they have been permitted to retain even under the recent drastic anti-Jewish laws. The campaign, according to advices reaching here is fully backed by the Kallay government, and finds its expression inmass-meetings being called in Budapest and in provincial towns at which resolutions are passed demanding the complete elimination of Jews from commercial and industrial life.

Leading this drive is Josef Varga, Hungarian Minister of Commerce and Industry, who during the week-end addressed a large anti-Jewish meeting in the Vigado Hall in Budapest. Reviewing Hungary’s economic position, the Minister presented the usual anti-Semistic arguments that the Jews have “penetrated” into Hungary’s economy and “occupied the key positions” there. He demanded that Hungarian trade, commerce and industry should be carried on “by Christians exclusively” and urged that Jews be prohibited from conducting any kind of business. “Though the present laws make it almost impossible for a Jew to obtain new trade licenses, it is necessary that far-reaching measures be taken to altogether eliminate the Jews from our country’s economic system,” he said.