Incident in Railway Train Denied by Senator, Before Roumanian Parliament

The story about the Jewish Senator Zipstein, a member of the Government Party, being attacked in a railway carriage by an officer of gendarmerie, because the officer objected to the political opinions which he expressed in conversation with his fellow-passengers, and which Senator Zipstein has declared was an invention was brought up again, this time in the form of an interpellation to the Government by Senator Gradistanu of the Liberal (Bratianu) Party.

Senator Gradistanu accused Senator Zipstein of being a Communist, saying that he had been arrested in 1920 on a charge of Communism and had been released only after intervention by important persons. Recently, he said, Senator Zipstein was travelling in a third-class carriage and entered into conversation with the other passengers. An officer who was present slapped Senator Zipstein’s face because of the anti-patriotic views which he had expressed.

Senator Zipstein, rising to a point of order, said that he had never been a Communist. It was untrue that he had expressed Communist views in a railway carrige, and the story about his having been slapped by an officer was an invention. He declared that it was an intrigue by the former Liberal Minister for Trade and Industry, M. Tancred Constantinescu, whose seat in the Senate he had been instrumental in invalidating.

The under Minister for the Interior, M. Mirto, intervening, said that if Senator Zipstein was guilty of the charge, he would have to face the consequences. If it was not true, his accusers would have to answer for it. The incident in the railway carriage could not have occurred, because on the day mentioned Senator Zipstein had been in the Senate all day, taking part in the debates. In 1920, he had been arrested during the elections, but he had been found innocent. General Popovitch, then Governor-General of Bessarabia, and now a member of the Senate, could confirm that.

General Popovitch declared: “Senator Zipstein was arrested in 1920, during the Parliamentary elections, because Communist proclamations had, during a search, been found in his possession. Two members of the present Government, M. Michalakei and M. Chalipa, leaders of the National Peasants’ Party, came to me and told me that the proclamations had been placed in Senator Zipstein’s house without his knowledge. I investigated the matter and had him released.”

Plans for the fourth annual convention of the Deborah Jewish Consumptive Relief Society were announced by Mrs. D. Shapiro, president. The convention will be held in New York, April 6-7.