A high official tonight categorically denied persistent rumors that the Government was planning to reestablish the Jewish labor camps disbanded for the Winter last Christmas. He said there was “too much unemployment” in Transylvania, Carpathia and Upper Hungary and maintenance of the Jewish camps last year “cost too much for the results achieved.”
He indicated jobless workers would be hired for flood relief, fortifications, highways and railroad projects in the Spring. Using hired labor, the projects would cost the Government 2.53 pengoes daily per person, whereas the estimated cost of impressed Jewish labor under military control last Summer and Fall was estimated at 5 pengoes per person.
According to rumors, the Government planned to impress all Jews between the ages of 21 and 42 early in the Spring and occupy them with forced labor.
Meanwhile, as a result of shoe rationing regulations it is expected that several thousand Jewish retailers will lose their livelihood. A Government commission was set up to license a limited number of dealers who will be authorized to distribute shoes in return for ration coupons. The anti-Semitic law limits Jewish licensees to six per cent, although 80 per cent of shoe dealers in Budapest are Jews.
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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.
