Polish Political Information, semi-official organ of the Foreign Office, expressed the hope that the World Jewish Congress in Geneva would discuss emigration of Polish Jews to new territories overseas, the Polish Telegraphic Agency reported today.
Pointing out that Poland has the largest Jewish population next to the United States — nearly 3,500,000 souls — the periodical says Poland is naturally interested in emigration because she is overpopulated and suffers from faulty handicraft and trade structure.
Forty per cent of the Jews in Poland live on trade and as middlemen, the article says, adding that a large percentage are professionals and many have no definite occupation.
The depression hit the Jews first of all because they are a social strata lacking a healthy economic basis, the periodical continues. It quotes Jewish economists as stating that 1,000,000 Jews in Poland have no sound economic basis.
Poland, having no capital, can solve the overpopulation problem only by means of emigration, declares the periodical, and quotes Jewish writers as saying that the solution of the Jewish problem requires an annual emigration of 100,000 Jews — as asserted in a press interview by Isaac Gruenbaum, member of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Since Palestine emigration possibilities are held limited, Polish Political Information expresses the view that Jewish emigration should seek new territories overseas and holds this should be discussed at Geneva. Countries interested in the solution of the Jewish problem, possessing large territories and great international influence, could easily contribute a practical solution and open new territories to Jewish emigration, the article concludes.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.