Polish Minister Favors Conference to Mitigate Distress of Jews in Poland

part for this plight. However, the lot of the Jewish citizens of Poland seems to be much more severe than that of their non-Jewish brethren. The system of taxation is so constructed and enforced as to bear heaviest upon the Jews, though they are the least prosperous element of the community.

“There appears to exist a spirit of non-cooperation on the part of various of the ministries of the government with the Jewish members of the Sejm. The refusal of the ministers to treat with Jewish deputies of the Kola bloc is of course to be regretted in itself, but perhaps this refusal is in part to blame for many of the practices complained about in the aforementioned articles.

“Before concluding our plea may we again point out that the alleviation of the economic plight of the Jew in Poland is the principal point of issue, the disastrous economic lot of the Jew in Poland is rapidly nearing a condition which can only be described as catastrophic. It is in this connection that we urge that a conference be convened by the government addressed to this question of providing remedial measures for this sad economic state. You yourself have given sufficient reason for the convening of such a conference in your interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, where you point out that the spreading of the cooperatives is tending to eliminate the Jewish middleman, and such elimination must mean disaster to the Jew unless he is able to otherwise adjust himself to a new economic life.

“Such a conference would take up this matter and other issues affecting the economic life of the Jews in Poland. This conference would be participated in by the government and by the duly elected Jewish representatives of the Sejm.”