(By our Paris Correspondent)
The exclusion of the Roumanian delegation from the International Students’ Conference because of the attitude of the Roumanian Students’ organizations towards the Jewish students in Roumania was demanded by the President of the British Delegation, Frank O. Darvall, President of the National Union of Students of the Universities and University Colleges of England and Wales, at the annual Council Meeting of the International Students’ Confederation.
While the names of the Roumanian delegates were being called out during the consideration of the credentials of the various delegations, Mr. Darvall rose and said: “I propose that the Roumanian Delegation should not be admitted to the Confernce because of the wrongful attitude adopted by the Roumanian students in their country against the students of another nationality. Our International Conference bears the character of a Union of all students in all countries and it has no room for enmity and hatred.”
The President of the Roumanian Students’ Union in Paris, M. Romanescu, said: “I protest against this attempt to introduce tendencious qustions here. This Conference has to confine itself to questions affecting the students’ unions in the various countries, and cannot deal with internal questions concerning the actions of the students in their own countries. We have our own policy in our country, and we shall not allow interference from anyone. The Statutes of our Conference do not provide for a discussion on matters which take place in the country of any particuar students’ union. I therefore ask that this question be taken off the agenda.”
The question of the difficulties between the Roumanian and Czecho-Slovakian students and the Hungarian students was also raised. A Czecho-Slovakian delegate thereupon urged that the internal questions in any country should not be dealt with. The Conference finally decided that such questions should be transferred to the First Commission, which is presided over byy the President of the Congress, Signor Maltini, the head of the Italian Delegation.
Immediately the First Commission met, the President of the British Delegation, Mr. Darvall, again raised the question of the activities of the Roumanian students. “The treatment by Roumanian students of their colleagues belonging to another nationality,” he said, “is not a Roumanian, but a general question. The International Students’ Confederation accepts all thinking and creative youth. In learning there can be no restrictions and no enmity, I propose that the Commission should deal with the question of internal conflicts among the students.”
The Roumanian delegate, M. Romanescu, called for the rejection of the British proposal. “If the question is discussed in the way the British delegate demands,” he said. “all the members of the World Confederation will leave it.”
The President, Signor Maltini, interrupted him, saying: “You must speak for yourselves. If you wish, you may leave the Confederaton, We shall remain.”
M. Romanescu replied: “Then it means that you are going to change the statutes. We declare our determination to resist any change in the statues.”
A Polish delegate proposed that the differences between various students’ unions in other countries should be discussed, but not internal differences between the students of the same country. The French delegate, M. Sorein, proposed that the Congress should deal only with questions which affect the international interests of the students, but not their national interests.
Mr. Darvall thereupon said: “It is all the same to us–national or international interests. We recognize students’ and human interests, and both of these should be dealt with at the Congress.”
On a vote being taken, the resolution moved by M. Sorein was adopted. M. Romanescu thereupon said: “So the question does not come on to the agenda.” Signor Maltini, the President, replied: “We shall see about that at the plenary session of the Conference.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
