J. D. B. News Letter

(By our Holland Correspondent)

A concilatory attitude on the question of the treatment of the Jewish minority in Roumania was taken up by the Jewish and the Roumanian delegates at the Congress of the International Union of League of Nations Societies which has been meeting here.

The question came up for discussion on three occasions, before the Permanent Minorities Commission of the Union, before the Minorities Commission of the Congress and before the Congress itself, on June 30, and on July 3 and 5th.

Mr. Leo Motzkin, who acted as spokesman for the delegates of the Palestinian, Austrian, Czecho-Slovakian and Bulgarian Jewish League of Nations Societies, maintained and developed the conclusions contained in the Memorandum which these Societies had presented to the Minorities Commission at its last session in Brussels. Dealing with the anti-Jewish excesses which had occurred in Transylvania in December 1927, described in the Memorandum of the Jewish Delegations. Mr. Motzkin said that the persons who were guilty in these excesses had been given full liberty of action and the sentences passed upon them could not be seriously considered as a sufficient action against the anti-Semitic outbreaks in Oradeo Mare, Cluj, etc. In view of the declarations made by the Roumanian Parliamentary leaders that an improvement had been inaugurated in the position of the Jews in Roumania, Mr. Motzkin said, he did not find it possible at the present moment to develop the Jewish question in Roumania fully before the International Union. In his capacity as representative of a nation whose ardent desire it was to be in cordial relations with the people in whose midst it was its destiny to dwell, he said, he was anxious to emphasize the fact that the action of the Jewish Societies must not be interpreted as being hostile to the Roumanian Government, but was simply a measure intended to protect the Jewish minority in Roumania against a recurrence of the excesses.

Mr. Motzkin, having explained the Jewish point of view. M. Djuvara replied in the name of the Roumanian delegation. He began by complimenting the spokesman for the Jewish delegates for having presented the question in so unbiased a manner and without any feeling of hostility against Roumania. Speaking for the Roumanian delegation. M. Djuvara said that his colleagues and he did not deny that anti-Jewish excesses had taken place. They severely condemned these excesses. The Roumanian delegation was ready to accept any propsal which would counteract the folly of anti-Semitism. He was willing to consider in conjunction with the Jewish delegates any solution of the situation which would give them satisfaction.

Following upon this declaration, Mr. Motzkin and M. Djuvara met together and jointly drafted a conciliatory resolution which the Minorities Commission adopted with acclamation and which was yesterday unanimously approved by the Congress at its plenary session.

The Minorities Commission of the International Union of League of Nations Societies, the resolution says, having heard the declarations made by the delegates of the Jewish Societies of Palestine. Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, and Bulgaria with reference to the position of the Jewish minority in Roumania and having heard the explanations of delegates from other Societies, adopts the following conclusions: The Commission takes note of the declarations made by the Roumanian League of Nations Society that it is animated by feelings of the widest humanitarian character and of cordial cooperation between the various races in Roumania and that the Roumanian League of Nations Society and all responsible politicians in Roumania profoundly regret the events of December, 1927 and will do everything in their power to prevent any repetition of these events.