Application of Soviet Law Disfranchises Forty Per Cent of Jewish Population

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Nearly forty per cent of the Jewish population in Soviet Russia is disfranchised under the application of the provisions of the Soviet election law.

This state of affairs is depicted and editorially complained of by the Jewish Communist press. These newspapers point to the fact that the provisions of the Soviet election laws are applied by the authorities without consideration of the special circumstances prevailing in towns where there is a large Jewish population. The result is that large numbers of workers who are really entitled to vote are disfranchised.

The number of the disfranchised amounts to forty per cent of the population, which is unfair as there is not such a large proportion of non-workers among the Jewish population.

Jewish delegates attending the Soviet Congress which was just concluded here numbered 3.8 per cent of the general membership. The Congress consisted of 1601 delegates. They were divided according to nationality as follows : 56.6 per cent Russians, 18.9 per cent Ukrainians, 3.5 per cent White Russians, 3.8 per cent Jews, and 3.3 per cent Georgians.