(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
A note of criticism against the League of Nations in its work for the protection of the national minorities whose religious, cultural and linguistic rights were guaranteed in the Versailles Peace Treaty, was sounded in the opening addresses of the Congress of National Minorities in Europe which opened here today.
The charge was made that in exercising the mandate of the League of Nations Covenant, the League authorities are laggard in their efforts to protect the rights of these minorities. The present procedure of submitting complaints by the affected minorities is too complicated and too indirect to afford protection and to cause speedy action, it was declared. A change in the procedure was demanded.
Dr. Vilfan, leader of the Slovanian minority in the Italian parliament, opened the Congress in which representatives of thirty-five minorities, coming from fourteen European countries are participating. A group of these minorities whose representatives left the Congress at its last session a year ago, has been reconciled. A number of Jewish deputies including Isaac Gruenbaum of Warsaw, Rabbi Nurock of Riga, Dr. Margolies of Prague, and others are present.
Dr. Leo Motzkin, of the Committee of Jewish Delegations, was elected one of the vice-presidents of the Congress.
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.
