Pogrom Reports in Russia Denied.

Reports emanating from Berlin about an alleged Jewish pogrom in Tula (they have also appeared in the London press via Berlin) are absolutely false, the J.T.A. representative here was assured to-day officially, following an enquiry into the facts.

During the antireligious Passover campaign in Tula, it is alleged in these reports, Communists belonging to the League of the Godless pogromed the observant Jews, and the G.P.U. established that the pogrom was led by two girl Communists named Barabanshikova and Wasilieva, and the G.P.U. consequently dissolved the Tula branch of the League of the Godless. This is another Menshevik lie, the Central Committee in Moscow of the League of the Godless told the J.T.A. representative here. Antisemitic incidents occurred in Tula, the Central Committee admitted, but they did not bear the character of a pogrom. They were caused by an anti-Jewish agitation carried on by two members of the local branch of the League of the Godless, who have now been expelled. No casualties occurred and no serious injuries were suffered by any Jew.

The antisemitic incidents which occurred in Tula, the J.T.A. representative is assured, are not of a more serious character than the incidents which are now occurring frequently in a number of places such as in the Kiesel Mining School in the Urals and in the Kertch factories in the Crimea, which were reported this week (given in yesterday’s J.T.A. Bulletin). The same is true of the report circulating in Warsaw of a supposed pogrom in Kiev. No pogrom occurred there. What happened was that some antisemitic workers insulted Jewish workers.