Jewish Paper Warns Polish Jews Against Illusion of Colonization Possibilities

Government Silent As Jews Discuss Pinsk Region Possibility (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

A warning against placing too much hope on the possibility of settling Jews on the land in Poland, particularly in the marsh region of Pinsk, after drainage will have been effected, was sounded today by the Warsaw Yiddish daily, “Der Moment.” In commenting upon the enthusiasm with which the Jewish press welcomed the decision of the Polish Government to study the Pinsk region drainage problem, the newspaper declares that “the talk about Jewish colonization in the Pinsk region is only a one-sided affair, since only Jews discuss it, while the Government is silent in the matter.”

Recently, a number of leading Jews in Poland received an inquiry from an American organization concerning the project of Jewish colonization in the Pinsk region, the paper states. “We must not, however, foster any illusions. The plan for Jewish colonization in Poland arose from the direst need. The Jewish economic position in Poland has been ruined. Jews think about various plans of saving their existence. Jews need land. If the swamps will be drained, land will be available. But is it certain, however, that it will be available for Jews? The Government has said nothing about settling Jews on the drained land. Besides, the drainage will take years,” the paper argues.

The plan would have greater feasibility, the paper adds, if a Jewish economic conference were called to present to the Government facts and figures showing to what economic position the Jewish masses in Poland have been reduced by the events of the last ten or fifteen years and to outline a definite plan of how the Jewish masses may be led back to productive work.

The conference, speaking in the name of Polish Jewry and raising the entire economic question of the Jews in Poland, may propose a Jewish agricultural colonization which would include also the Pinsk region, the paper concludes.