The Upper Chamber today engaged in a significant anti-government demonstration when it applauded a challenge to the Government by Louis Szilage, who accused Premier Bela Imredy of “creating an atmosphere in which Christians are no longer judged by their honesty or their honor, or their capacities, but solely by the degree of their anti-Semitism.” He warned of the increase of totalitarian methods and of imredy’s effort to rule almost entirely by police measures.
“The Government party is manifesting its sympathy for the extremist parties and is haggling with them,” he said. “The Nazis do not regard the Imredy government as a strong adversary. We thought the Imredy Government was going to assure calm and security but we must state that it was not capable of it. The premier bases himself on the extreme right fraction of his party. The stability of economic life is more menaced by this extreme right fraction than it is by (Ferenc) Szalasi, chief of the Nazis.”
Meanwhile, the Catholic and Calvinist churches broadcast instructions for the guidance of the thousands of Jews seeking the haven of other faiths to escape the penalties of Hungary’s projected anti-Semitic measures. Justinian George Cardinal Seredi, Primate of Hungary, sent out a pastoral letter advising that all Jews seeking to be converted must study the catechism two hours daily for at least three months. Authorization must be obtained from the Church hierarchy before conversion can be granted, it was added. The Calvinist Church, on the other hand, stipulated that applicants for admission to their faith must wait a full year.
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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.