JEWS IN RUMANIA

Evening Star, Issue 22880, 11 February 1938, Page 8

JEWS IN RUMANIA

NEW CABINET DEGREE DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 10. The ‘ Daily Telegraph’s ’ Bucharest correspondent says; “The juridical commission, whose duty it is to decide whether Cabinet decrees are constitutional, declares that the decree ordering Jews to prove their citizenship under penalty of denationalisation violates the Constitution, which*does not allow differential treatment on religious or racial grounds.”GOVERNMENT RESIGNS. BUCHAREST, February 10. (Received February 11, at 11 a.m.) The Government has resigned. KING SEES POLITICAL LEADERS. LONDON, February 10. (Received February 11, at 12.30 p.m.) The ‘ Daily Telegraph’s ’ Bucharest correspondent says King Carol, after acceptance of Dr Goga’s resignation, gave an audience to Dr Maniu, the democratic leader of the National Peasant Party, who has not seen the King since 1932, because King Carol broke his promise not to bring back Madame Lupescue. The King saw many other political leaders, indicating a desire to form a Cabinet of concentration. The Juridical Committee’s decision that the Royal decree is unconstitutional dealt the Goga Cabinet a severe blow. The decree violated the Constitutional guarantee for full equality of all citizens by singling out Jews for unfavourable treatment, making it possible to denationalise the country’s 760,000 Hebrews. The decree was the pretext for the immediate expulsion of Jews from many professions. NonJewish lawyers in Bucharest, Jaisy, and other centres prevented Jewish counsel from pleading by beating them and throwing them into the streets. The engineering, medical, and other professions took similar measures. University students seized and severely beat male and female Jewish students, no Jews daring to resume work in the medical, legal, and other faculties.

ANTI-BEMETIG MEASURES INVALIDATED

LONDON, February 10. (Received February 11, at 1 p.m.) All of the Goga Cabinet’s anti-Semi-tic measures have been automatically invalidated by the Juridical Committee’s declaration, which is still the subject of censorship. It was a fatal blow to the unpopular minority in favour of a Fascist dictatorship. King Carol could not maintain a Cabinet against which ninetenths of the people voted at the last election. Moreover, M. Goga found it hopeless to apply in this backward country, where the Jews control 80 per cent, or the commerce, measures . which were not feasible even in Germany, France, and Czechoslovakia. The promptly stopped assisting Rumanian rearmament and threatened to withdraw credits, while Russia, with the prospect of Germany obtaining Rumania’s vast output of oil and grain, withdrew her Minister (M. Ostrovsky) and entered a vigorous protest in connection with the Butenko incident. M. Maniu, interviewed, • said that when his Government was formed it would welcome the close co-operation of Britain, France, and the League. BUCHAREST, February 10. (Received February 11, at 2 p.m.) The Soviet Note protesting at M. Butenko’s disappearance was presented at the Foreign Office.