Difficult days for the 800,000 Jews of Hungary were foreseen here today following an address by Dr. Stefan Antal, high official of the Ministry of Justice, in which he indicated that new anti-Jewish legislation was in preparation and would soon be promulgated.
It became known here today that no fewer then five conferences were held during the last fortnight between officials of various Government department for the purpose of speeding up the promulgation of the so-called “Third Jewish Law” to supplement the previous anti-Jewish laws, which have led to the ousting of thousands of Jews from commerce, industry and other fields.
Recent developments in the Balkans have strengthened the hand of those elements in the Hungarian Cabinet who have been demanding stricter anti-Jewish measures in Hungary to follow the path of Germany and Italy. Introduction of such measures had been hitherto opposed by other members of the Cabinet, including the Minister of Finance, who argued that the complete elimination of Jews from the economic life would necessarily lead to the ruination of the Hungarian economic system.
In his address, Dr. Antal announced that the promulgation of stricter anti-Jewish laws in Hungary was only a question of a few weeks. The third “Jewish law” is on the thres-hold, he said. He accused the Jews of circunventing the previous laws “so that the issuance of a third anti-Jewish Law became necessary, in order to fill the gaps left open by the second Jewish law.”
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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.