Smidovitch Says Million Desiatin Available for Jewish Land Settlement

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

Mr. Jacob Bill kopf and Mr. Faltz, accompanied by Dr. Joseph Rosen, the head of the Agrojoint, were received here yesterday by M. Kalinin’s Deputy, M. Smidovitch.

Mr. Billikopf put a number of questions to M. Smidovitch relating to the conditions of Jewish life in Russia in general and the colonization work in particular. M. Smidovitch in reply made a statement on the position of the Jews under the Czarist regime and the obligations which the Soviet Government has taken upon itself to remove the grievances of the Jewish population ### to create for millions of Jews an economic foothold which, as a people of small traders and artisans, they lost as a result of the Revolution and the economic transformation in Soviet Russia.

Replying to the question whether there would be enough land available for a large mass settlement of the Jewish population, M. Smidovitch pointed to a map indicating that over a million desiatin of land were marked off for Jewish colonization purposes if required.

In reply to Mr. Billikopf’s question whether the Government prohibits synagogues and Beth Medroshim and Jewish religious teaching in the colonies, M. Smidovitch replied:

“Certainly not! The churches and synagogues are open everywhere in Russia, and no less so in the colonies The Government will give no money for the maintenance of the synagogues but the colonists are free at their own cost to build and maintain synagogues so long as they do not use Government funds for the purpose.”

Increased activity of the Ku Klux Klan in Monroe County in connection with the forest coming elections, is indicated by a number of meetings of the organization recently ### Rochester, N. Y.

With the chief battle in Monroe County in center in the Thirty-eighth Congressional District, there is some curiosity as to which candidate, if either, will have the Klan’s approve James E. Cuff, the Republican candidate, the Catholic, while his opponent on the Democratic ticket, Representative Meyer Jacobstein, is a Jew. Political leaders await the action of the Citizens’ League, a dry organization, to see if it will put a third candidate in the field. The league has threatened to take such action should both Mr. Cuff and Representative is cobstein declare for modification of the Volstead law.