News Brief

The statement of Secretary of State Kellogg that the United States Government is deeply concerned in the fate of the oppressed minorities and although no official intervention is possible, it is willing to do all within the limits of diplomatie propriety to alleviate their condition, made a deep impression in Roumanian Government and parliamentary circles.

The matter assumed particular significance since the discussion of the United States Government’s attitude toward the matter was the result of the discussion of the Roumanian Government’s effort to secure a $60,000,000 loan.

In publishing the Jewish Telegraphic Agency despatches from Washington the Roumanian press reports today that the subject was discussed in a lively manner in government and parliamentary circles. It is stated that the government has made explanations to United States Minister William S. Culbertson and simultaneously instruetions were sent to the Roumanian Minister at Washington, George Cretziano, to take steps to calm American public opinion, particularly by pointing to the fact that during the last few months the Government of Roumania has made efforts to maintain public order and to suppress all attempts at anti-Semitic violence.

The discussion in the American press of the Roumanian loan question in connection with the mistreatment of Roumanian Jews and other minorities, it is feared here, will result in a loss of prestige for Roumania and may harm the chances for the loan.

The United States Government has a moral ground to act in the situation in Roumania because of the mistreatment of Jews greater than that which existed at the time of the abrogation of the Russian treaty, is the opinion expressed by the “New York Times” writing editorially on the statement of Secretary Kellogg. The “Times” declares that the first statement in this matter, which was a rejoinder to the opponents of the policy in Nicaragua, “was not of the happiest inspiration.” The paper writes:

“Misapprehensions concerning the attitude of the State Department toward the treatment of European minorities by their own Governments are cleared away in a statement by Secretary Kellogg. Not only is our concern in such cases affirmed, but Mr. Kellogg declares that within the diplomatic rights and proprieties our moral protest has been registered. The specific issue involved is the ill-treatment visited upon the Jews and other minority elements in Roumania. The misunderstanding now removed by Secretary Kellogg’s statement was created by the inability of some one in the State Department to refrain from scoring a debating point. When the question of Roumania was recently brought up in Washington the comment was forthcoming that some of those concerned for the wrongs of a foreign minority in a foreign land had not displayed the same anxiety over the wrongs of an American minority abroad: the reference was to Nicaragua. The rejoinder might have been in place on the floor of Congress or in public meeting. Coming from the source it did, it was not of the happiest inspiration.

“The record has now been set straight. The right to apply moral pressure in the interest of elementary human rights and justice is one we have often exercised. Twenty years ago Elihu Root as Secretary of State took open cognizance of the treatment of the Jews in Czarist Russia. We deferred renewal of a trade treaty with Russia as a protest against such practices. In the case of Roumania today the United States may be said to occupy a moral ground even more solid than the ordinary considerations that enter into such protests. To the extent that this country contributed to the victory of the Allies in the war, it has contributed to the present enhanced position of Roumania. When the collapse of the Central Empires came Roumania was overrun by their troops. Without an allied victory there certainly would not have been a Greater Roumania and there might have been no Roumania at all.

“Our efforts in behalf of fair treatment for European minorities cannot be so direct as those that lie open to members of the League of Nations. The rights of minorities are embodied in the peace treaties and stand under the protection of the League. These clauses, courageously and impartially enforced, constitute one of the surest guarantees for the preservation of peace on the Continent. Whatever may have been mistakes committed by the map- makers at Versailles, no one seriously contends that it is possible to draw a set of frontiers in the ethnological crazyquilt of Central and Eastern Europe that would eliminate minorities under foreign rule. But it should not be impossible to inculcate or enforce fair treatment for all races and creeds within the political frontiers. That is the surest way to mitiate the menace of the ‘unredeemed lands.’ Standing outside of the League of Nations, w are bound, on our own initiative, to take note of the vital importance of the minorities,” the “Times” concludes.