Pink Drainage Plan Has No Claim to Serious Attention As Means of Alleviating Jewish Distress in Pola

The Pinsk drainage plan has no claim to serious attention as a means of alleviating the Jewish economic distress in Poland, and its only effect is to obscure the real, immediate and pressing Jewish problems. This view, which is general among the Jewish leaders here, was strengthened to-day by the declarations made by the Minister of Agrarian Reform, Professor Kozlowsky, in a conference which he had with Mr. Jacob Landau, the Managing Director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in Warsaw.

The Polish Government does not regard the Pinsk drainage plan as a Jewish question, the Minister made it plain in the course of the conference. Its aim is mainly to benefit the peasants who have not sufficient land for their needs, he explained. Of course, he said, we shall not discriminate against any nationality, but we do not intend to extend any special privileges to Jews, because that might cause discontent among the suffering Polish peasantry.

There is also the question of time. It must take at least 20 years, the Minister said, before the vast tract of marshland in the Pinsk area can be reclaimed and converted into fertile soil. Experiments are already being carried out, however, on the first section of 5,000 hectares. About 50 million American dollars are needed to carry out the project, and the Government intends to raise this amount as a loan, which will be repaid by the money received in payment for their farms from the settlers when the land has been put into fit condition for colonisation.

Asked whether the Polish Government has any intention of following the example of the Soviet Government, of alleviating the economic distress of the Jewish population by assisting the impoverished Jews to settle on the land, the Minister replied that Poland is in a different position to Russia. We cannot follow the Soviet system, he said. Our reclaimed marshlands must be sold to individual settlers. Everyone wishing to settle there will have to buy his land, and our guiding principle in this regard will be to sell land chiefly to such people who are trained land workers, while giving due consideration also to any applications received from people who have had no previous farm experience, but wish to engage in agriculture. It will cost approximately 2,000 dollars to settle a family on this land, the Minister stated, adding that facilities would be given at the same time to groups of settlers to colonise the reclaimed land.