Rumania moved several stages further along the road to totalitarianism today as a result of a series of new decrees and dispositions.
While the Ministry of Education granted amnesty to Iron Guard students, Teofil Sidorivici, leader of the national youth organization known as the Straja Tarii (Guardians of the Country) expelled all Jewish children from the movement. Until now membership in the Straja Tarii has been compulsory for all boys between the ages of 7 and 18 and for all girls between the ages of 7 and 21. Henceforth only Christian children will be tolerated.
The Education Ministry decree permits all secondary students “who have suffered disciplinary punishment for political motives” to return to school and continue their studies. The amnesty applies for the most part to young Iron Guardists who were expelled from school during the two-month period when the Iron Guard was banned.
Meanwhile, it was officially announced that the Council of Ministers last night approved the final draft of Rumania’s new anti-Semitic code, one of the main features of which is expected to be a confiscatory tax on Jewish-owned property. The new laws will probably be published tomorrow.
(According to the German wireless, the legislation sets up four categories of Jews–(1) those who participated in the war of 1877 and their descendants, (2) those who ten years after arriving on Rumanian territory applied for citizenship and who have been naturalized by law, (3) Jewish combatants in the Rumanian army during the World War, (4) Jews living in territories ceded to Rumania or who originate in these territories.
(It is reported that war veterans and their descendants will be permitted to hold office, but no new appointments will be made. Jews from the annexed regions who are not veterans will be barred from public office, from professions “having direct liaison with the public authorities” and from operating cafes, tobacco shops, cinemas and many other enterprises.
(The German wireless also reported that all Jewish civil servants were removed from the Rumanian Ministry of Economics on the ground that they were not members of the Party of the Nation, from which they have been barred. Among them are many commercial counsellors attached to Rumanian missions abroad.)
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