Only Newcomers to Be Affected by Lithuanian Order Excluding Aliens from Employment Director of Citiz

The circular issued to employers to see about dismissing aliens from their employment, and replacing them by Lithuanian citizens means that labour permits to enter the country will in future be issued only to such aliens who are indispensable as experts and cannot be replaced by Lithuanian citizens, and then only on condition that within a certain period they will train Lithuanian citizens to become qualified to do their particular kind of work, M. Nawakas, the Director of the Department for the Protection of Citizens at the Ministry of the Interior said to the “Yiddishe Stime” here today.

You speak of aliens who are going to come into the country in the future, the representative of the “Yiddishe Stime” said. But what we are interested in is what is going to happen to those aliens who are already in Lithuania, most of them for very many years. Does the circular apply to them?

The circular applies only to people coming into the country in the future and such others who have lived in Lithuania for a comparatively short time, M. Nawakas replied. As for those aliens who are living in Lithuania for a long time, and those aliens who have no citizenship (Staatenlose), we shall certainly not deprive them of their bread. These classes of aliens will be treated by us like Lithuanian citizens, and we shall make various concessions to them. In issuing labour permits we shall take every factor into account, as, for instance, if they have family ties which keep them in Lithuania, have served in the Lithuanian army, or know no other language than Lithuanian, and so forth.

Advocate Dr. Robinson and Advocate Garfunkel, former members of the Club of Jewish Deputies in the Lithuanian Parliament, strongly condemned the new order to-day. From whatever point of view the order is viewed, legal, political, or economic, Advocate Garfunkel said, it is bad. Legally, it brings up the question of how it is going to be reconciled with the numerous trading agreements into which Lithuania has entered with other countries, in most of which it is definitely laid down that the citizens of these countries are to enjoy in Lithuania the same rights in respect to trade and industry as are enjoyed by Lithuanian citizens. If German, Austrian, Latvian or other citizens are prevented from working in Lithuania, their countries will be justified in complaining that the agreements have been broken. politically, the new order will result in repressions against Lithuanian citizens living abroad. There are large numbers of Lithuanians in Latvia and in Germany, who will suffer in consequence. Hundreds of Lithuanian families now living abroad will be ruined and will have to come back to find work in Lithuania, thus making conditions worse than they are. Economically, the overwhelming number of the aliens in Lithuania are people who have no citizenship at all, who have no country to which to go and no State which can intervene on their behalf. The new law will thus create a class of people numbering about 8,000, who will be deprived of all means of economic activity, and will have nothing left to do but go begging in the streets. Public opinion must raise its voice against such an experiment, which will bring about the ruination of thousands of families.

MOST ALIENS NOT DISPLACING ANYONE BECAUSE MAJORITY ARE EXPERTS OPENING NEW BRANCHES OF ACTIVITY WHICH OTHERWISE WOULD NOT EXIST.

Ex-Deputy Roginski said that there were two sides to the question. It was perhaps right to stop Labour permits to aliens coming into the country at a time of economic crisis like now. But it was an altogether different matter when it came to aliens living in the country for years who have become part of its economic life. In actual fact they displace no one, because in most cases they are experts whose special knowledge enables us to open up branches of activity which otherwise would not exist. We must remember, too, that there are hundreds of thousands of Lithuannian citizens at work in other European countries and above all, in the United States, who might be subjected to reprisals. Another important point is that among these aliens there are large numbers, who de facto, if not de jure are Lithuanian citizens.

All immigration countries are closed now, Dr. Robinson said. Where then can we expect our Staatenlose to go if we deprive them of the right to work? If they must stay here, how can we expect people to accept a position which exposes them literally to starvation? The new order has accomplished one thing, inasmuch as it has brought up in real earnest the question of naturalisation, which might otherwise have continued to drag. There should be a more liberal procedure to effect the mass-naturalisation of people who cannot produce all the necessary documentation to support their claim for citizenship since the ordinary process of individual naturalisation is far too slow and too hide-bound with procedure to enable these people to obtain their citizenship. I estimate the number of these people at about 10,000. This is the only way in which we can avoid trouble as a result of the new order.

What M. Nawakas tells us, the “Yiddishe Stime” says in an editorial article, is somewhat reassuring, since he insists that the order affects only those aliens who are holders of foreign passports, and is aimed only against those of them who wish to come into the country, and not against those who are already resident here for many years, or those who have no citizenship anywhere, Staatenlose without any State to take up their cause.

At the same time, we must not forget the text of the official communique, the “Yiddishe Stime” goes on. It definitely notifies employers that no labour permits will be issued to aliens after January 1st, 19… for any kind of employment. M. Nawakas says that only those aliens seeking admission to the country are affected. The official communique speaks of all aliens, that is, all people not in possession of Lithuanian citizenship papers. In the provinces, the police are interpreting it in this way. At Kovarsk, in the district of Wilkomic, the police have been going about demanding that people who have no citizenship papers, people who have lived in the country for years, should sign an undertaking that they will not take on any employment after January 1st., 19…. It can easily be imagined what a state of panic this police action has caused. It is also stated that the police are setting up a kind of Inquisition to probe into the private affairs of all inhabitants, lest it be found that a few aliens who under the new order must not do any work, and get out of it by saying that they are not working, but are living on money sent them by friends or relatives abroad, are in reality secretly at work.

The best way of solving the whole difficulty, the “Stime” concludes, would be the wholesale naturalisation of all people who have firm roots in Lithuania and are citizens in all but the legal formalities. It only requires a little generosity and goodwill on the part of the Government to solve our Staatenlose problem.