Number of Jewish Deputies Reduced to One-fourth in New Polish Sejm

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The number of Jewish deputies, elected on the tickets of Jewish deputies, elected on the tickets of Jewish parties and groups, will be reduced in the third Polish Sejm to about one-fourth the Jewish representation in the second Sejm, as a result of the parliamenfary elections held throughout the Republic on Sunday, March 4th. The first returns just received here from many parts of the country indicate that so far the election of seven Jewish deputies is beyond question.

The Zionists will have the largest representation in the Jewish group. In Warsaw Isaac Gruenbaum, who headed the list of the bloc of National Minorities, wa## reelected; being the only Jewish deputy in Poland’s capital, instead of the three Jewish deputies elected to the second Sejm.

In Lodz Dr. Rosenblatt, Zionist, was elected. In Bialystock H. Farbstein, Mizrachi leader, was returned. In Czenstochowa, former Senator Truskier, nonpartisan, representative of the Jewish Merchants’ Association, was elected to the Sejm. In Cracow Dr. Osias Thon, Zionist, was re-elected on a Jewish national ticket. In Lemberg, Dr. Leon Reich, Zionist, was re-elected on a Zionist ticket. The early returns also indicate that in Lublin the candidate of the Jewish labor party, Bund, was elected.

The Orthodox Agudeth Israel, the Volkist party, the Left Poale Zion and the other Jewish groups into which the Jewish vote was split suffered defeat. The Jewish population displayed less interest in the elections than at the last national election. This fact was interpreted to be the reaction of the Jewish voters to the dishearening of the Jewish voters to the disheartening quarrels and hopeless confusion into which the Jewish community was thrown.

These circumstances stand out in greater relief against tha background of the attitude of the general population which registered a seventy percent participation in the elections, the main issue of which was the reform of the Polisht constitution on the point of the election of the president to conform with the American procedure of geral vote for presidential election instead of election by the national assembly.

The general result of the election will be the strengthening of the Pilsudski government. At the polls the government list, although it does not include the name of Marshal Pilsudski, was the winner at the expense of the nationalist groups and the Polish Socialist Party. A considerable increase in the vote for the Communist list accompanied the greater support for the Pilsudski regime. It is stated that now, having an influential group in the Sejm, Marshal Pilsudski will force the amendment to the constitution and when it is enacted will run for president, to be elected by popular vote.

In Warsaw the government list polled 165,951 votes, thus gaining 6 seats; the anti-Semitic national democratic party obtained 97,366 votes, gaining 4 seats; the Communists with a vote of 65,080 will have 2 seats; the bloc of national minorities 43,128 votes, gaining 1 seat (Gruenbaum); the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.) 42,804 votes, 1 seat; the Orthodox Agudath Israel 24,113 votes, being insufficient to obtain representation; the Jewish labor party, Bund, gained 18,536 votes, electing none; the Left Zoale Zion 3,651 votes, not entitling it to representation.

In Cracow the Orthodox Agudath Israel received 2,300 votes, electing no representative, while the Jewish national list obtained 19,000 votes electing Dr. Thon.

The electioneering in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw was marked by heated argument between the supporters of the bloc of national minorities and the Chassidic supporters of the Agudath-Prylucki bloc.

At the last moment Deputy Gruenbaum issued a proclamation to the Jewish voters of Warsaw, urging them to “give a death blow to the Agudah”. In this proclamation, Gruenbaum charged the Agudath Israel with “manufacturing denunciations and libels” and “cloaking their activities in the mantle of religion.”

National elections to the Senate, composed of 111 members, will be held next Sunday.