The Jorga Government resigned to-day. It is stated here that M. Titulescu, the Minister in London, has been called to Bucharest to endeavour to form a Government.
Professor Jorga became Prime Minister in April 1931, a little over a year ago.
At that time, too, M. Titulescu had been summoned to Bucharest to endeavour to form a Government, and it had already been announced that he had formed a Cabinet in which Professor Jorga would be minister of Education. The following day it was stated that M. Titulescu had abandoned the task, and had returned to London, and Professor Jorga formed a Government under his own Premiership.
M. Titulescu resigned, it was said at the time, because king Carol had insisted that M. Argetoianu, who helped to bring about his restoration, must be Minister of Finance, and M. Titulescu could not agree to this. Professor Jorga gave M. Argetoianu the Ministry of Finance when he took office.
The Jews of Roumania have high hopes of a Government which would be headed by M. Titulescu, who is regarded as a man of determination and of good will. M. Titulescu has always enjoyed the reputation of a friend of the Jews. When some years ago the serious anti-Jewish outbreaks took place at Oradeo Mare, he telegraphed to the late Mr. Lucien Wolf, expressing profound bitterness and sadness at the acts which had been committed. “There is not one of us”, he wrote, “who does not see that the first victim of such troubles is Roumania herself”.
At the time of the famine in Bessarabia, when the Federation of Jewish Relief Organisations arranged a performance in London in aid of the famine-stricken Jewish victims of Bessarabia, M. Titulescu came to the performance and in addressing the audience, he declared that “the welfare of the Jewish population in my country is a national interest, and we seek to assure equal rights to the Jews as Roumanian citizens and complete freedom of sonscience and thought without distinction of race or religion”.
The Haham Dr. Gaster in greeting M. Titulescu on that occasion said that M. Titulescu had been a friend of the Jews at all times and they would understand what he meant when he emphasised “at all times”.
The resignation of the Jorga Government has been persistently rumoured for several months. The financial situation has now made its position untenable, and an announcement a few days ago by the Ministry of Finance that all State officials would have their salaries cub 50 per cent., that further economies would be made in other directions, and that tax collector## were being instructed to collect taxes more rigorously, and would be held personally responsible for their collection and dismissed from their posts if they did not collect the full amounts from all taxpayers in their area, caused a storm in the press and in the country. Parliament was to reassemble this week after the vacation, and it was generally assumed that the Government would not be able to obtain a vote of confidence.
The Liberal Party has been conducting a vigorous campaign to overthrow the Government, and its leader, M. Duca, declared a few days ago that he intended to draw the attention of the sovereign to the situation in the country, and to tell him that if the Jorga Government remained in power the Liberals would refuse to accept responsibility for what would happen in the country.
The Jewish Deputies welcomed the present Government not with enthusiasm but without any prejudice against it, Deputy Theodor Fischer, the President of the Jewish Party in Roumania, said speaking in the Chamber in the debate on the address a few months ago.
The Government had disappointed, however, all the hopes which the Jewish population had reposed in it, he declared.
Speaking of the financial legislative measures proposed by the Government, Deputy Fishher complained that they were all born of the spirit of crisis, and yet none of them were designed to combat the crisis and alleviate the misery arising out of it.
The Jewish Party, therefore, expresses profound distrust of the present Government, he announced, and will vote against it.
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