Our Daily News Letter

(By Our Bucharest Correspondent)

One of the noticeable, and deplorable, features of the parliamentary elections which took place in this country last week, was the contrast in the conduct of the Jews and that of the anti-Semites. The Jews were not united, the anti-Semites were. It must also be pointed out that while the government party placed obstacles in the path of the opposition parties, resorting in some instances to physical violence against opposition candidates, the anti-Semites were allowed to move about the country without any hindrance and they had the support of the priests who gave them an opportunity to fulminate from the pulpits of the churches. With black banners held aloft and lighted candles the peasants in many towns swore that they would vote for the notorious Professor Cuza, whom they called “redeemer” and “prince.” It should be noted that the anti-Semites resorted to a wily tactic by exploiting the fact that Cuza incidentally carries the same name as the popular and beloved Roumanian Wojewoda, Cuza. The Cuzists will now have eleven members in Parliament; Cuza will be at their head and his lieutenants will be Codreanu and his son, who killed the Jassy chief of Police Monchu.

This band of rabid anti-Semites issued a slogan “Numerus Nullus.” Their program is to drive the Jews out of the towns and cities and to take away their land (which the Jews do not have) the forests (which the Jews have on lease) their commerce, trade, etc. The civilized world will now be given an opportunity to witness another gay spectacle of anti-Semitic craze.

The results of the election are interesting and illuminating in general, aside from the question of the anti-Semites. Only fifty per cent of the voters cast their ballots. This was due to the fact that the public was disgusted with the manner in which the elections were conducted by the government and also to the fact that there was a desire to avoid trouble, as conflicts could easily lead to fatal incidents…. Altogether there were 2,414,990 votes cast of which the government received 1,312,799, i.e., 54,36% of the total; the united opposition parties got 742,815 votes or 30.75%: the Liberals got 165,117 or 6.75%; the Hakenkreuzler 109,935 or 4.47%; the Socialists 37.429 or 1.60%; the Communists 35,519 or 1.50%. The latter two parties were not granted the right to send their representatives to Parliament, since, according to the election laws they did not secure the necessary minimum of 2% of the total votes.

Among the factors which contributed to the Government’s victory was the fact that the government buttressed its position by securing the support of the minorities, Magyars, Germans, Bulgarians, all of whom had many candidates on the government list.

The government did not conclude a bloc with the Jews but a number of individual Jews ran on the government list. The Jewish National bloc, owing to various differences among the leaders of the “Uniunea.” was unable to put up its own Jewish list or to conclude an agreement with the opposition. In this way the Jewish votes were split into small fractions.

Roumanian Jewry will have five Deputies in the lower house of the Parliament and three Senators. Some of the elected Jews, as Meyer Ebner and Rabbi Zirelsohn are known outside of Roumania. The Jews who were elected to the Senate are Rabbi Zirelsohn, Streitman and Gutnik. The Chambers of Commerce which are allowed several representatives in the Senate, chose among the others, one Jew, Elijah Mendelsohn of Jassy.