Outlook for Polish Jewry: Prime Minister Tells Jewish Pro-government Deputies He is Giving Careful C

The Prime Minister, Colonel Slawek, after a long conference with the Jewish members of the Pro-Government Parliamentary Club, Deputies Wislicki, Minzberg, and Jeger, and Senatory Mendelsohn, who were joined by Deputy Rabbi Levin, the Agudist representative, has given them an assurance that he will give careful and favourable consideration to the various proposals which they urged on him for the amelioration of the position of the Jewish population, the Jewish Deputies of the Pro-Government Club have to-day informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here.

The Jewish Deputies inform the J.T.A. that they urged on the Prime Minister the need of giving facilities for Jews to engage in agriculture in Poland, of providing State credit-aids for the Jewish co-operatives, of remitting the burden of old taxation, which leads to actions against many Jews unable to pay the large amounts of back-arrears, of modifying the compulsory Sunday Closing Law, postponing the process of compulsory introduction of machinery into the bakeries which result in large number of Jewish bakeries all over the country being closed down, because they cannot afford the modern machinery required under the new regulations, and the provision of kosher food for Jews while doing their military service.

The Prime Minister, Colonel Slawek, had an interview at the end of January with Deputy Rabbi Dr. Thon, the President of the Club of Jewish Deputies, and Deputy Dr. Rosmarin, the Vice-President of the Club, in which he discussed with them at length the various Jewish demands set out by Rabbi Thon in a detailed expose in which he emphasised the present distress of the Jewish population and their needs in the economic, political and cultural fields. The Prime Minister assured the Jewish Deputies that he was going to enquire into the Jewish postulates in regard to the most urgent points affecting the economic position, the organisation of the Jewish communities and the Jewish school system, with a view to seeing what could be done to satisfy the Jewish demands. The relations between the Poles and Jews have improved so much that it is now possible to give effect to the Jewish postulates step by step, the Prime Minister told Dr. Thon and Dr. Rosmarin in the course of the conversation.

Rabbi Dr. Thon, speaking with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the conversations with the Prime Minister, said that the conversation had been most satisfactory and explained that the principal demands which Dr. Rosmarin and he had put to the Premier were: a modification of the Compulsory Sunday Closing Law, to enable the Jews who keep closed on Saturday to pursue their business for a number of hours on Sunday and Christian holidays, facilities for Jews to obtain employment in the State service, which at present is practically closed to Jews, and a reduction of the turnover-tax, which imposes a heavy burden on the commercial and industrial sections of the population, in which the Jews are largely represented, and which is tending to intensify the economic distress among Polish Jewry.