The Rumanian Government, following Premier Octavian Goga’s radio speech in which an outline of anti-Jewish measures was included, sought today to allay concern abroad regarding the extent of the new cabinet’s anti-Semitic program.
Meanwhile, however, the anti-Jewish drive continued. Several Jewish newspapers in Jassy were suppressed. The Czernowitz municipal administration was informed by a court that an additional 154 Jewish families had been deprived of Rumanian citizenship, bringing the total denationalized Jewish families to 376 in Czernowitz. Interior minister Armand-Calinescu deprived Jewish Journalists of the right to possess railway passes, generally delivered to all Rumanian newspapermen.
(The New York Times, in a Vienna dispatch Friday, reported a special commissioner was named to the Rumanian Commerce Ministry to enforce anti-Jewish measures. Among the measures reported to have been taken, in addition to those already listed, were: forbidding Jews to live in a village in any capacity; ordering all Jewish physicians who studied abroad and who have practiced in Rumania since 1919 to appear before a Health Ministry commission which will revise the practitioners’ roll; a similar order to all Jewish engineers and architects.)
At the same time, Nicholas Titulescu, pro-French former Foreign Minister, sent a telegram from St. Moritz, Switzerland, to Dr. Julius Maniu, president of the anti-Goga National Peasant Party, in which he asked that his membership in the party be accepted.
Indications that the Government was seeking to alleviate anxiety over its anti-Jewish program were seen in the following actions:
1– It was announced that Theodore Fischer, president of the Rumanian Jewish Party, will be received by Premier Goga within the next few days.
2– Premier Goga said in his radio speech that he would not be an “oppressor.”
3– The official news agency, Rador Oriente Radio, denied that Rumanian nationalism as exemplified in the present government was similar to Fascism or Nazism. Rumanian nationalism, it said, was not based on racial supremacy.
4– King Carol, on the occasion of the New Year, sent donations to the Jewish communities of Bucharest and Jassy for distribution among poor children.
Bands of National Christian enthusiasts were roaming the streets of Bucharest today compelling Jewish passers-by to purchase swastikas.
The violently anti-Semitic pro-Fascist Iron Guard has decided not to participate in the next elections. Cornelius Zelea-Codreanu, leader of the organization, which is now called the “All for the Fatherland” party, believes that the time is not yet ripe for him to take power.
It is understood that the Bucharest dailies, Adeverul and Dimineata, suppressed last week by the Goga government because of their Jewish ownership, will soon be allowed to appear under “pure Rumanian” ownership.
In his broadcast address Friday night, Premier Goga said his government represented the idea of national resurrection. “I who have fought so long for liberty cannot become an oppressor,” he stated, adding that minorities which adapted themselves to the principles of the State would be allowed to develop in peace. He warned his supporters to check their enthusiasm and maintain strictest order and discipline.
Goga announced that Parliament, of which only nine per cent are members of his National Christian Party, would be dissolved, but did not mention when new elections would take place. Finally, the new Premier outlined his government’s program, consisting of the following:
1– Suppression of “anti-national” publications, in addition to the three democratic Bucharest dailies already banned;
2– Cancellation of Jews’ licenses to sell alcoholic beverages;
3– Revision of post-war naturalizations;
4– Appointment of Government commissars for foreign and Jewish-owned enterprises with a view to ensuring compliance with national labor laws (he failed to mention what these laws would be);
5– Reduction of the prices of sugar, petrol, tobacco, cotton and other primary products.
He concluded with a declaration that the Government would act with prudence and with promptitude.
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