While Colonel Jozef Beck, Polish Foreign Minister, and other Polish diplomatic officials continued their efforts to mitigate the effect of the sensational Polish declaration on minority right protection supervision, antagonism against Poland mounted over the week-end as delegation chiefs consulted with their home governments and implications of the Polish declaration became clearer.
Poland has no intention of infringing Jewish rights in that country and the real contents of the minority treaties have been embodied as an integral part of the Polish constitution, Colonel Beck declared today in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
SEEKS EQUALITY
Poland desires to be treated as the equal of other nations and that is the only reason for the Polish declaration before the League of Nations Assembly last Thursday, the Polish Foreign Minister said. “Even the declarations made by Messrs. Simon Barthou and Polish will not change the attitude of Poland,” Colonel Beck stated.
The Polish statesman added that his country would participate in the discussion by the Sixth Commission of the Polish proposal to generalize the minority treaties by requiring their application to all members of the League.
Neville Laski, Anglo-Jewish leader, and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Committee of Jewish Delegations, visited the Polish Foreign Minister and put before him Jewish objections to the Polish course of action on the minorities question. At the same time the Jewish called on the chiefs of the delegations to the League and laid their views before them.
Yesterday Laski, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and co-chairman of the Joint Foreign Committee, and Dr. Gold-
ANTAGONISM TO GENEVA MOVE GROWS AMONG OTHER NATIONS
mann visited the Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Jozef Beck, to object to his declaration on the minorities clauses before the League of Nations Assembly on the ground that consent of the minorities involved, including the Jews, is necessary before their treaty rights can be annulled.
In an interview here yesterday, Dr. Goldmann stated that he had been working with Mr. Laski in Geneva for the past week and that they were naturally deeply concerned over the implications of Beck’s speech on Thursday.
REGARDED AS ADVANCE
“All Jewish organizations.” said Dr. Goldmann, “concerned during the Peace Conference with securing minorities rights regarded them as a marked advance towards a universal international protection system.
“Past history, especially the situation of the Jews in Germany, has proved the necessity for the maintenance and enlargement of this system. Jews, therefore, would welcome any measure to secure this.
“We are satisfied that the present Polish government has taken a stand against anti-Semitic tendencies but the minority treaties are not an instrument directed toward a particular moment of time or toward a particular government, but a permanent protection for all minorities in countries bound by minorities clauses.
JEWS TO STAND FIRM
“Therefore, pending the decision of the League of Nations on the Polish generalization proposal, Jewry will defend the maintenance with undiminished strength of the rights stipulated in the treaties.”
Dr. Goldmann visited M. Louis Barthou; French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the situation. With Mr. Laski he also visited Chancellor Schuschnigg of Austria.
In a statement following these visits, Dr. Goldmann declared that, “obviously, the Jews must defend their minorities rights under the stipulated treaties, pending the decision of the League of Nations.”
The League will take up the Polish proposal this week, probably on Wednesday. It is still believed here that Poland will adopt a more conciliatory attitude after the rebukes to her delivered yesterday by the spokesmen for Great Britain, France and Italy.
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