Premier Says Return of Jews to Spain Never Discussed by Government

There can be no question of a repatriation of the Sephardic Jews to Spain, such as some romantically-minded Spaniards have dreamt of Don Manuel Azana, the Prime Minister of Spain, said in an interview with the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The question has not come up even once at any meeting of the Cabinet, he declared, and it has never been seriously discussed anywhere.

The J.T.A. correspondent reminded the Premier that reports have appeared in the foreign press and in anti-Government papers in Spain about large numbers of Sephardic Jews having landed at various ports in Spain, where they were welcomed by representatives of the Government. The Spanish anti-Government papers allege in this connection that the revolution was carried out with Jewish aid and Jewish money, and that the Jewish return to Spain is the price which must be paid to world Jewry for this assistance.

These stories are all lies, the Premier answered. There is not a word of truth in them.

They belong to the same class as the stories about the Republican Government persecuting and oppressing the Catholic religion. What the Republic has done has been to establish complete liberty of religious belief. That was part of the Republican program, and we have carried it out completely. The Catholic Church used to enjoy certain rights and privileges in Spain, of which it was deprived long ago in other countries. We have abolished them. But there is no persecution or oppression of anyone. No one is persecuted or oppressed in Spain today because of his religious belief. We have instituted religious liberty.

The Spanish people are not given to persecution, the Premier concluded. The Inquisition and the Spanish wars were all the work of a few wire-pullers in control.