Despite the general strike proclaimed in protest against the new electoral law, the Polish Parliament today adopted the law at its second reading by a vote of 277 against 114.
The law, which is a blow to the anti-Semitic National Democratic Party and to other groups opposing the present regime, at the same time will affect Jewish representation in the Parliament.
“The 3,500,000 Jews in Poland demand not only their due representation in the Sejm, but also such representation in which they can place confidence,” Dr. F. Rottenstreich, member of the Sejm, declared in a speech on the new electoral law before the Constitution Committee.
Dr. Rottenstreich pointed out that the new electoral law gives the Jews a chance to obtain representation at best in five constituencies. In Eastern Galicia, for example, 650,000 Jewish votes will not carry a single seat, he declared. In the districts of Wilno, Lublin and Bialystok, more than 1,200,000 Jewish votes will not obtain a single seat.
“In the Polish Senate the Jews will not be able to return any representatives at all,” Deputy Rottenstreich contended.
“The Jewish population regards the few seats allowed them in the Parliament like a bone thrown to them, prompted only by a wish to avoid the appearance of the Jews having been entirely deprived of representation,” Dr. Rottenstreich said.
The parliamentarian pointed out that the Jewish population of Poland, faced with extermination tendencies and the breach in equality of their rights, is vitally interested
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