for expenses, instead of 20 per cent as previously.
Asked whether Soviet citizens who pay in foreign valuta will not find themselves subjected to unpleasantness by the authorities, M. Romashevsky said that there was no possibility of that. An arrangement was previously reached with the Departmental authorities on this matter, he said, and there can be no unpleasant consequences in such cases.
As a commercial organization whose duty it is to bring as much foreign valuta as possible to the State, he went on, we are interested to attract clients and not repulse them.
If people find that they do not gain by dealing with us, or actually suffer as a result of it, we shall lose thousands of other likely customers.
There is another way of dealing with the matter, he continued, by which the applicant avoids all risk of unpleasantness.
The applicant’s relatives or friends abroad can deposit the necessary amount in one of the foreign Intourist offices, giving the name of the person for whom they want permission to emigrate, and if the application is rejected the money is returned to them by the same Intourist office in which it was deposited.
In the little while that has elapsed since the Intourist announced the new facilities, he said, scores of people, mostly Jews, have already applied to us. Some of them voluntarily offered deposits in valuta in Russia, several have already paid, and one received his passport in a week, and has left for France.
As to what has induced the Soviet Government to change its policy in regard to permitting people to emigrate from the Soviet Union, he said, that is the result of the stability and secure-ness of the Soviet Government, and the strength and growth of the Soviet Union.
When the Soviet Government did not feel that it was stable enough, it naturally tried to restrict people leaving Soviet Russia, but now Soviet rule is so firm that it is no longer necessary to fear that some of the emigrants may spread libels against the Soviet Union. The growth of the Soviet Union in the midst of the general world crisis, is so well known that we can permit ourselves the luxury of allowing citizens to talk things off their chest, if they like it. Even the worst enemy of Soviet Russia cannot deny our gigantic achievements. All he can say is that we are short of certain foods or articles of utility. But everybody knows that the conversion of a backward country into one of the most progressive cannot be carried out without difficulties.
Anyone who has any reason for wanting to leave the Soviet Union, he concluded, will be given every possible opportunity to do so.
In order to facilitate matters for relatives or friends who wish to he people to leave Russia, the Intourist is now contemplating making the conditions of payment more easy. It will be enough for the applicant or his relative or friend abroad to pay in only 20 per cent of the amount on application, and the rest when the passport is actually issued.
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.
