JEWS IN ITALY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23172, 19 October 1938, Page 12

JEWS IN ITALY

EXPULSION DECREE EVERY ENTRANT SINCE 1919 "MEASURE OF SELF-DEFENCE? | t [from oub own correspondent] LONDON, Sept. 29 On the eve of an official report of the progress achieved by the Evian Conference regarding Jewish refugees, Mussolini has issued some new decreesOne lays it down that all Jews who have enjoyed Italian nationality for less than 20 years, and all foreign Jews, must leave the country by next February. Another orders the exclusion of Jewish professors and students from State schools, colleges, and universities "to ensure the racial purity of Fascist schools."

The expulsion decree is to be applied in "Italy, Libya and the Aegean possessions." Italian East Africa is therefore excluded. Some persons have taken this to mean that the Government would welcome the settlement of Jews, especially Jews with capital, in the new Empire, but the omission is more likely to be due to the assumption that there are no Jews there to bo expelled.

The Rome correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that it will involve the expulsion of between 9000 and 10,000 persons. There are altogether about 44,000 Jews in the country, one to every 1000 Italians. The greatest number of those who will have to leave 'are people who entered the country between 1931 and 1935 from Germany and Austria. There are also several hundred Polish _ Jews who went to study in Italian universities and remained to practice their professions with or without obtaining Italian citizenship. For the most parti the foreign Jews who come under the decrees are well-to-do. They comprise well-known medical specialists, dentists and a large number of lawyers who are practising in Rome, Milan and other cities. On the whole, the new laws are welcomed bv Italian professional men* Doctors, dentists and lawyers are particularly relieved that some of their most successful rivals will hare left the country within the next six months. Italian tradesmen also expect to see their business revive, especially in the women's clothing trade, where the competition of Austrian Jews has been felt for some time. Signor Gayda, commenting on the decree, remarks that the practice ot excluding undesirable foreigners which is now being adopted by Italv js already being applied in most European and American countries, and li a perfectly natural measure of seltdetence. In the weekly Roma Fascist* a violent attack is made on those Jews who hold commanding positions m Italian banking and commercial houses, of whom a list is published. Its theme is that the national resources should be removed from the control of persons whose outlook and sympathies are no national, but international.