No Openings for Jewish Immigration to Bulgaria M. Omarchevsky Former Minister of Education Says on R

There are no openings for Jewish immigration to Bulgaria, M. Stovan Omarchevsky, former Minister of Education, and one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian Party, who has just returned from his visit to America, where he was studying American educational methods on the invitation of the Carnegie Endowment Fund, said in conversation with the J.T.A. representative here, referring to the belief that was created in Jewish quarters by his interview with the J.T.A. in New York (given in the J.T.A. Bulletin of January 27th.), that there are such openings for Jewish immigration to this country. The belief arose as the result of a misunderstanding of what he had said, M. Omarchevsky claimed.

What I said to a representative of your Agency in New York was unfortunately misunderstood, M. Omarshevsky stated, and I would like to clear up the misunderstanding now. I said in the course of the conversation that the Jews of Bulgaria, who form a very active and intelligent section of the population, are able to engage freely in various occupations and feel themselves like all other citizens, a completely equal part of the population. This fact could not be changed by the anti-Jewish agitation conducted here and there by one or the other irresponsible body, I went on. The Bulgarian people as a whole, and the Governments of Bulgaria have never had any intention of imposing restrictions of any kind, either in law or in practice, against the Jewish population. I said that I personally could not understand the persecutions and restrictions to which the Jews are being subjected in Poland, Roumania, or Hungary, and to illustrate the attitude of the Bulgarian people, I said also that there are no legal restrictions against immigration in Bulgaria, and that ten years ago, for instance, a considerable number of Armenian refugees had been admitted into the country.

This remark was taken in many quarters to be an invitation to Jews to emigrate to Bulgaria from other countries. That was not my intention at all. The economic position in Bulgaria to-day is so difficult that people coming from abroad to seek work and occupation can hardly find any openings here. My sole intention was to point out that there are no legal restrictions against the immigration of Jews or other aliens, in order to emphasise the national tolerance of the Bulgarian people, but I did not mean to advise Jews from other countries to emigrate to Bulgaria.