Survey Shows Anti-semitism is Rising Rapidly in Rumania

Tomorrow’s article will deal with the extent to which restrictions in employment in all directions are practiced in Rumania with regard to the Jews.

the activities of National Socialist groups, leaders and certain organs, are to a very large extent in actual practice allowed to pursue their livelihoods in trade and industry. In Rumania the movement is to push the Jews out of their positions in trade and industry by means of a legislative numerus clausus to apply to all branches of economic life.

REAL REASON FOR DEFEAT

The real significance of the motion put recently by the ex-Premier, M. Vaida-Voevod, to the conference of the National Peasant Party to enforce a numerus clausus against the minorities in all directions, is not that the motion was defeated and that M. Maniu, the spiritual leader of the Party, and M. Mihalache, the present official leader of the Party, spoke against it. The real significance is that the motion was defeated not because the sentiment of the party was against it and that M. Maniu and M. Mihalache spoke against it, nor because they are opposed to it in principle, but because it was felt that on tactical grounds it would be a mistake for the party to inscribe such a demand officially in its program.

This anti-Jewish motion was not rejected, but silently acquiesced in, with the view expressed openly that there was no need to make difficulties for the party by formally adopting a demand which would create anxiety abroad, might result in intervention from official quarters in other countries, arouse anti-Rumanian feeling in influential political and financial quarters abroad, and lose the National Peasant Party the support of the Jewish voters at the next elections, which might be necessary to enable the party to return to power. When the party again constitutes the government, it was pointed out, it will be quite possible to enforce this motion without it being necessary first to inscribe it in the official platform.

DEMANDS NUMERUS CLAUSUS

In the course of the debate, M. Vaida-Voevod said that it was absolutely essential to enforce in all branches of activity a numerus clausus against the minorities as a vital need for the Rumanian people.

“The preponderance of the Rumanians must be the axiom of our policy,” he said. “The new State, the Modern State, is based on national force. Any foreign admixture will make impossible the normal development of the Rumanian people. The Rumanians will no longer be masters in their own home. Even today, the situation is deplorable. Our nation is in peril, our state is on the road to losing the leadership out of its hand.”

M. Maniu replied that he was in agreement with the views expressed by M. Vaida Voevod, but he did not accept his conclusions, and he could not accept the technique of the numerus clausus. But the need of the numerus clausus, he indicated, is obvious. It is an imperative need. But it can be carried into effect without being written down in the platform of the party, and on the one hand, if it were written down in the platform, it might lead to excesses and on the other hand, it would create unfortunate repercussions abroad. Those were M. Maniu’s sentiments.

SUGGESTS SOCIAL CLAUSUS

M. Mihalache, the chief of the party, also declared that he was in agreement with M. Vaida-Voevod. But, like M. Maniu, he insisted on a different procedure. He suggested that it be specified that the State must exert its power and the peasants must be given the opportunity to enter into all branches of activity. This meant a numerus clausus without a formally religious or national character, but one with a social character.

The Minister of Justice, M. Antonescu, who has since become Minister of Finance, replied, “What we can say at this moment is that we view this question with sympathy and interest, and we are convinced of its specific importance.”

A few days later, on February 9, the important Bucharest daily, “Universal,” reported that on the previous day the Council of the Federation of Chambers of Advocates had discussed the question of effective restrictions to prevent the penetration of the minorities into the professions. The paper states that it was placed on record that on this question there exists a perfect and unanimous agreement for the entire country. The Dean of the Constanza Chamber of Advocates demanded that the numerus clausus provision be immediately incorporated in the statutes of the organization, but this was not agreed to.

Tomorrow’s article will deal with the extent to which restrictions in employment in all directions are practiced in Rumania with regard to the Jews.