Not a Single Jew Employed in Polish Postal Service Jewish Deputy Complains: There is One in Town of

Why are there no Jews, employed in the Polish postal and telegraph service, Deputy Dr. Rosmarin, the Vice-Chairman of the Jewish Club of Deputies, asked when the estimates of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs came up to-day before the Budget Commission of the Seym. There is not a single Jew employed at present in the Polish post service, although officially there is no legal restriction against Jewish employment in the service, Deputy Rosmarin said.

There is one Jew employed as a postal clerk at the Post Office in Czortkov, the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs replied. If there are no other Jews employed in the postal service of the country, he went on, it is not because of any racial or religious discrimination. No questions about faith or race are considered, he said, when engaging post office officials.

Jews do not apply for positions as postmen because the work is hard and the pay is small, the then Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, M. Miedzinski, said in Parliament some months back, when replying to a charge that his Ministry boycotted Jews. During the discussion on the Budget of his Ministry before the Budget Commission of the Seym, Deputy Ciolkasz, speaking in the name of the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.) had protested against the boycott of Jews in the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Deputy Dr. Rosmarin as the representative of the Club of Jewish Deputies, had said that even in the time of the Czar there had been a Jewish postman in the Nalevki district (the Jewish quarter of Warsaw). They did not ask for the appointment of so many Jewish postal officials, he said, as the Jews are entitled to in proportion to their numbers, but they did ask the Ministry to begin appointing some Jews.

The Minister in his reply contended that the Ministry did not enforce any boycott against Jews. It had issued instructions to all Departments, he said, that there must be no distinction made on account of nationality in the appointment of officials. It was the Jews who were themselves responsible, because they did not apply for positions in the post office, because the work was hard and the pay was small.

A few days later, the question was again raised by the then Jewish Senator Koerner, who wanted to know why among the 10,288 Post Office officials in Congress Poland, there was not a single Jew. This time, the Minister replied that it was because the Ministry was giving precedence to ex-soldiers, and because it had also been found that Jews are physically not fitted for the hard work of letter-carriers. Jews do not apply for employment in the post office, he said, because the work is too hard for them.