Sephardic Jews Will Be Reincorporated into Spanish Nation: Declaration by Spanish Provisional Presid

All the Republican political parties in Spain accept the reincorporation of the Sephardic Jews into the Spanish nation, the President of the Spanish Provisional Republican Government, M. Zamora, declared to-day in receiving Mr. Kibrick, an Argentine Jewish lawyer who has just arrived here.

The Spanish Consuls abroad will receive instructions to facilitate the details of the reincorporation of the Sephardic Jews into the Spanish nation, the President declared further, and the Spanish Parliament will solemnly revoke the edict of 1492, under which the expulsion of the Jews from Spain took place.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, Senor Lerroux, told the J.T.A. Representative in Geneva recently (in the J.T.A. Bulletin of May 22nd.) that the Spanish Government would deal very shortly with the question of naturalisation of Spanish Jews in other countries who desire to become Spanish citizens, and would lay down general lines for dealing with this entire matter.

The Spanish Government had already had an opportunity of considering the question of naturalisation of those Spanish Jews who live in large numbers in various parts of Morocco, he declared, and he thought that there could be no obstacle to the granting of Spanish nationality to these Jews. The Edict of Expulsion issued by the Catholic monarchs of Spain in 1492 was no longer valid in the opinion of the present Spanish Government.

When the J.T.A. representative asked whether the Spanish Government intended formally to proclaim the annulment of the edict, Senor Lerroux said: For myself, as the leader of the Republican Radical Party, I am of the opinion that Spain must deal with this question radically and proclaim to the entire world that the edict of 1492 has been annulled. It would mean giving formal recognition to the great principle of equal rights for all citizens.

A telegram received from the Spanish Minister of Finance, Senor-Prieto, by Senor Echeguren, the Secretary of the Municipality of Mellilah, in Spanish Morocco (reported in the J.T.A. Bulletin of May 16th.) who had asked for facilities for granting Spanish citizenship to the Sephardic Jews in Morocco, announced that the Spanish Government had on general lines given its approval to “a decree under which the Sephardim residing in the towns under the sovereignty and within the zone of our Protectorate in Morocco, will obtain great facilities for acquiring the Spanish nationality which so many of them desire”.