Jewish Life Reviewed in Lates Cables and Letters

The Jews fo Salonica have become a playball in the hands of the political parties of Greece. For soem time, the Jews were pushed hither and thither, each party tying to make the most of them, and to drive them towards their goal. Now, all have joined in the scrimmage for the ball, and the situation has become so involved that it is difficult to discover just where the ball itself is, which party is defending, and which attacking.

Until quite recently, the situation in Greece, if anything but pleasant for the Jews, was at least fairly simple to unrevel. There were two large political parties, the People’s Party (which forms the government), and the Venizelists or “Liberals,” who form the opposition. The party now in power has always been friendly to the Jews; not so much because of any genuine feelins of friendship, as because they wanted Jewish votes. The Venizelists, on the other hand, violently at tacked the Jews, Chiefly because the Jews did not vote for them. And consequently, the Venizelists support the EEE, a powerful nationalistic, anti-Semitic organization. Before every election, the Venizelists threatened the Jews with reprisals if they did nto vote for them, and the People’s Party, only a week ago, warned the Jews in no uncertain terms that if they listened to the Venizelist threats and voted for them, they would sacrifice the friendship of the government party.

ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA VIOLENT

In the meantime, the anti-Jewish propaganda of the EEE had taken on extremely violent forms, and it had been getting much worse in the last fow weeks in view of the coming municipal electoins. Election meetings were held at every street corner and in all the halls in the town, atrocious accusations were made against the Jews (who form a very large proportion of the population of Salonica), and the temper of the population was cleverly aroused against the Jews. Many of these meetings, particulary that held last Sunday, resulted in large anti-Jewish emonstrations in the streets between the EEE and police.

In all these anti-Semitic activities,the EEE was wholeheartedly supported by the Venizelists, whose chief organ, Makedonia, practically became the mouthpiece of the EEE, and indulged in the most violent anti-Hewish prpaganda. It was also an open secret that the EEE was in close touch with German Nazis. Nazi officials were sent from Germany to Greece to organize the movement there, groups of young members of the EEE went to Germany to take special training courses, and the Nazis financed the EEE on a very large scale. These facts were openly admitted by one of their own leader, M. Vlahoyannis, who declared: “National Socialism is represented by the EEE in Greece.”

RIOTS ORGANIZED

In the last few days, the EEE has been organizing riots in various parts of Salonica, inciting the Christian population to blood heat, and shouts have frequently been raised of “Well murder the Jews,” “Down with the Jews,” “We’ll Massacre Them and Burn Them” and so on.

The position, then, as can be seen, was anything but a happy one. But at least the Jews knew who was friend and who was foe. They knew that if they voted for the Vinizelists, they would incur the enmity and vengeance of the Government pary, and if they voted for the Government party the Venizelists would try to pay them back. But they know where they stood. Now all this has been changed.

The trouble started with a quarrel between the anti-Semites themselves. The Venizelists suddenly launched a violent champaign against the EEE. The Venizelist papers accused the EEE of having digressed from its original aims and of having become fanatically nationalistic, and introduced a somewhat more friendly tone toward the Jews. This new policy fo the Venizelists even went so far that the Venizelist candidate for the post fo Mayor of Saloniaca declared publicly that the Jews were not entirely eresponisble for the misunderstandings between them and his party.

The EEE, naturally, soon began to return the attacks of the Venizelists. The organization started a paper of its own, the Drassis, and accused the Makedonia, the anti-Semitic organ fo the Venizelists,of having sold itself to the Jews for 800,000 drachmas and of having vommunity of Salonica. At the same time it intensified its auti-Jewish campaign.

JEWS IN TURMOIL

And now, as if the situation were not already sufficiently complicated, the Venizelists accuse the EEE of having sold itself to the gobernment-to the People’s Party-which was always friendly to the Jews.

The whole affair may read like a musical comedy plot, but for the Jews fo Salonica it is bitter earnest. Their plight is a desperate one. Teh anti-Jewish agitation of the EEE and, until recently, of the Venizelists, has stirred the Christian population. And the Jews do not know where to turn for support, or even sympathy. They do not know who are their friends, and who their enemies. The anti-Semites accuse the Venizelists, who till now were their allies, of beking hand in glove with the Jews, but the Jews know only too well the feeling that the Venizelists harbore toward them. And the Venizelists accuse the government of being hand in glove with untill now was so friendly towards the Jews.

To what extent these accusations nad counter-accusations are true, to what extent they are mere political propaganda, it is impossible to discover. However that may be, the situation of this, one of the oldest Jewish ommunities in Europe, is most complex.