Says Roumanian Jewish Plight Will Be Serious Until Economic Conditions Alter

The Jewish situation in Roumania will remain serious so long as the general economic situation of the country is depressed, said Victor Caderu, head of the Seguranza, the Roumanian secret police, in an interview today with the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. M. Caderu, who has just returned from an intensive investigation of the Bukowina area where the recent anti-Semitic disturbances occurred, is considered the right hand man of King Carol.

He frankly admitted that the Jewish situation in Bukowina was “very alarming”. He added, however, that while on his tour of investigation, which was made at the request of the King, that he had issued orders designed to prevent any repetition of the anti-Jewish disturbances. These orders, included, he said, instructions to arrest any person conducting anti-Semitic propaganda and to refuse to permit strangers to reside in places in Bukowina where anti-Jewish feeling is tense, thus avoiding any invasion of agitators. M. Caderu also said that he had ordered that no meetings should be held unless special permission sanctioning such gatherings was obtained from the local authorities.

The peasantry throughout the country is now in frightful misery, the chief of the secret police stated, because Roumania’s exports of corn, timber and other products have been greatly reduced owing to Roumania’s inability to compete with Soviet Russia’s prices for the same products. The peasants are in a state of great dissatisfaction and this unrest is being utilized, M. Caderu explained, by anti-Semitic agitators as a means of stimulating anti-Semitic outbreaks.

These outbreaks, he feels, are dangerous not only for the safety of the Jews, but also for the entire country because they may “drive the peasantry to Communism”. M. Caderu concluded the interview by saying that only foreign agricultural credits can save the Roumanian peasants from starvation and prevent outbreaks of dis-dissatisfaction.