PLAIN REMINDER TO RUMANIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20930, 8 January 1938, Page 11

PLAIN REMINDER TO RUMANIA

“MUST PROTECT MINORITIES ” ACTION RESENTED BY; GERMANY REGARDED AS UNUSUAL INTERFERENCE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received January 7, 8.50 p.m.) 1 LONDON, January 7. The Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says: The sharpest resentment is expressed regarding the British and French reminders to Rumania that she had pledged herself not to ill-treat minorities. The action is regarded in Berlin as an unwarranted interference. The semi-official journal “Diplomatiche Correspondens,” the organ of the German Foreign Offices, declares: “Such ostentatious notice has not previously been taken of 20-year-old regulations which are out of date and inconvenient.”

Owing to uneasiness regarding the Jews in Rumania, the British Government on January 5 instructed Sir Reginald Hoare, British Minister at Bucharest, to take the earliest opportunity ,of reminding the Rumanian Government in the most friendly fashion of the interest Britain has always taken in minorities and of the treaty signed at Paris in 1919, of which Rumania was a signatory, guaranteeing racial, religious and linguistic minorities political rights and religious freedom. Outline of Policy Tire Rumanian Government’s antiSemitic programme is expected to divide the Jews into different categories: First: War veterans and their children. who will not be molested; Secondly: Those who did not fight, for good reason, and whose case will be considered in the light of their activities since the war; Thirdly: Non-participants in the war, and post-war immigrants against whom every possible measure is expected to be taken. A special service, reserved for Jews, when great danger threatens, was held in crowded synagogues throughout Rumanian on Monday last. The worshippers included many prominent personages, who have not attended for a long time. Jewish merchants are curtailing long term orders, owing to nervousness. Many are selling out their stocks, which are not being replaced. Messages from Bucharest following the reconstruction of the Roumanian Cabinet, indicated that the new Prime Minister, M. Octavian Goga. intends to confiscate Jewish lands, cancel Jewish licenses to sell tobacco and alcohol, and to forbid them to become merchants in the villages. The expulsion of many immigrants is expected. The Rumanian Bourse closed until January 10, because of heavy falls in all securities, caused not only by the rush of Jews to realise their assets, but also by the fears of non-Jews about possible anti-capitalist measures. The Rome correspondent of “The Daily Telegraph” stated that Italy attaches immense importance to the formation of the new Rumanian Government, which is hailed as the breakup of the Little Entente. Signor Gayda. in the “Gioranie d’ltalia” says: "The new Government is anti-Semitic and Nationalist. It will gradually expel the Jewish hordes. In foreign policy it will avoid the dangers of verbose democracies, and in time may even join the anti-Communist Pact.”

The Vienna correspondent of “The Daily Telegraph” stated that alarm had been caused by the prospect of an exodus of Jews from Rumania. Dr. Schuschnigg’s new paper, the “Weltblatt,” said: “In the interests of Austrian traders, the country should immediately bolt the door by an antiimmigration law.”

It was also reported from Sofia that the Bulgarian Government had forbidden Jpws and other refugees from Rumania to enter Bulgaria.