JEWS IN RUSSIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11927, 9 February 1917, Page 4

JEWS IN RUSSIA.

Tn certain organs of the British | Pr<ss (says a, correspondent to the j "Morning Post") one is constantly! finding references to the conditions of tho Jews in 'Russia. T hare seen it. j positively -fated that the Jewish na-j tion in Knssia is subjected to porsecu- J tiou not only of an economic but: of a j religious character. f have come i across snob a phrase as this: " Fins j Russian (.overnmenr •nebs the blood) oj tho Jew simpiy because lie is a ] Jew !'» Tie- ignorance ~f tho wider public concerniiig the iniernal affairs of JJus- I f.ia is. cineily to hiame for the altog; li'ier lpriuios'.i-M'ou.-, and. une.-sided v ; evrs taken of iho legal position of the ."few-; in 7;Tissia, In the general Slate si picture and public life of the j Rie-ini! Eninire tho nation of Jewry does undniiiitcdly occupy a special J place, cm a!-o do the other alien groups ' in l?iis = ia. of hiuropcan or Asiatic ori- ; gin. of (.'hrisiuui or non-Christian | creeds, who live their lives apart, j And i' '-hould he noted thai, the de- j gr< e of their aloofness from the. main j stream of life in the U it-Man Slate is j in the very closed, relations with their j narionai traditions and race peculiarities. The various croups of aliens in 1 the Russian Kmpiiv are at all times ai i libcrtv, either individually or eollec- ; lively, to throw off their cxee])iional ; status and acquire in a moment nbso- j lufely all the rights of Ivtissian citizen-1 •-liip in their fullest scope: there is j bid one, and only, condition at inched, j nanmly, that they cannot' have it both i way*. They must be willing to divert i 1 liemseh-c'- not alone, of such rosirie-! fions as limii their civil ripbfs. but j also of all the .special T>rivileges whieli | they have hitherto enjoyed. { NATIONAL THIVJI.EGKP. I Few Tioople outside Russia are aware j that the Russian Jews, numbering ; some six millions, enjoy a whole series { of highly significant national privi- j lecres, of which the natives of the soil I themselves are deprived in those re- j gions (sixteen provinces wiih a total I population of twenty-five, millions) in- I habited bv ,I'ews; iho right of imposing j their own t.'jjces (the " korobochny'' | tax, etc.). fbe right to maintain ex- j ehisively Jewis'u educationa.l establish- | nients to nliirh nnn-Jew.s are not ad- j miltefl (the ''hedera,'' the. " Acade-i mies"), the rigid, of .self-government in j their public affairs (tho ' r kagal' ! gj Mith ofiio'als fliat have- executive power (" pari'si.'' "' shamesld,'' etc.), ar.d. ' even more remarkable, the. tolerated, if not openly legalised right of admmidering their own justice (•' bet-din ''), to say nothing of the right of forming "unions" (" khevri '* ), and the rigid;, of free assembly in the so-called houses of prayer (" .synagogues "V The enormous political privileges which the Jewish nation thus, under the re.-peetnbb' pretext of religious and race peeuliariities, really enjovs in Russia are field sacred by the authorities of iho Russian State, which thereby puis into tho hands of Russian Jewry extraordinary powers. Tho inioi'iial national solidarity of the Jewish kagals, according io the universal opinion of those, who know exceeds in a high degree tho stability of the'" ties uniting such Stato. cccle«iastH-ai, or public organisations as the Russians themselves have (tho '' United Nobility,' 1 the ' : Ihirghers' Union/'' tho ''Crtiftsmen (oiikls." the "Peasant ("oiiUiiniii'S," the " C;lr;ireh Rrot.her]u:o'i'., M the parish ..organisations.

c-ic.) : and the principal result of tins existence of these Jewish privileges in Russia, is naturally the complete triumph e.f the Jews in all those sphere;-, of Russian economic and public activity where co-operation and solidarity play the chief part in crushing all competition. The, predominance *r>f the Jews in "Russian finance, in Russian trade, the. Russian Tress, and the. Russian stage. lias Ion;; been strikingly manifest M all foreigners visirino; Russia. They all alike, fully rooogni.se also thai die Russian {iovommont is contending with this predominance, only in a very j moderate degree, which is explained by i t!io traditional (shrinldnc; from any appearance of incautiously touching the religions or purely spiritual *ido of Jewish life. As :i result, the Jewish, nation in Russia remains secure in the actual 'possession of political ritrhts which are denied to the native Russians among whom it lives. Naturally, tho Russian Government is compelled to seek an. issue out' of a situation which is steadily becoming more and more acute, and is compelled, nolens Yolens. to take account of the smv.lt wave of anti-Semitism which is rising (ijnong ad the non-Jews of the Russian Empire. His trying to protect tho common people "f Poland and Lithuania from tho solid economic prehears exercised upon them by the ,!ewish kagals, and therefore it forbids the Jew who is not personally engaged in agricultural labour to reside in the villages. Tins measure does little to protect the peasant from exploitation by the low Hi usurer, and, in point of fact, over tho whole western half of European Russia not a .single bushel of grain escapes tho hands of the, Jewish "middleman, not a single landholder is in a position to buy the triin«-s of his daily need:;; without paying tribute to the "Jowti, who have squeezed out 95 per cent of their Christian trade, rivals in eighteen provinces, the richest, 1 in Russia -that is to say, over an area, equal to Franco and Germany taken together. Everywhere where the Jews desire to devote themselves personally to agricultural labour they are met by the Russian Government with full and unconditional support. Rut tho Government has found itself forced to prohibit categorically Jews, leasing .or buying land and Vmber for purely

PRIVILEGES 10 DISABILITIES A MISUNDERSTOOD PROBLEM.

.speculatire purposes: experience has proved thai., the disastrous deforestation of enormous areas in Western Russia and. m Poland has been brought about alums;, exclusively owiim; to the predominating part played Try Jew ypeculaiors. K.-aaies that, by tho venal connivance of complacent. Christians, have fallen into Jewish bauds are invariably sold by them to the. local, peasantry c.n i-crnis cruel and oppressive in the extreme. CAk.(TI.A'i'Ml) LYING. Outside Russia there is no hesitation at accepting as literally true such sin leintiit s a< : "A. s'ek .lew lias not the rigid- to visit, a watering-placo for the bem'iii, oi his health," or "A is not. ailowed io reside in Petrograd. Moscow, ami many other places." and the like. St'itemenis of this kind can (■nly be. characterised as a very low form of propaganda by political agitate)]--;, ho i.s ivef! known that an euorinoiis number of (ho most diverse wntoring-pi.'icps in Russia are pi tun ted west; of the, Dvina. and the Dnieper, that is to f>ay_ precisely in ibose townships and district- which am populated by Jews. Moreover, SO per cent of the wate-nng-ptnees. sanatoria, and hospitals m Poland. Lithuania, Little Russia, and White Russia aro in Jewish ha mis, i)]id are served almost wholly hv doctors and apothecaries of the Jewish race. Nay. more, in the very capital of the Russian Kmp'ro V.i per cent of the, doctors are of Je.vish race, and of the hundreds of apothecaries' shops (which enjoy an extreme form of trade protectnm in Russia) there are only two which do mU belong to Jews. As lor private persons resident, in. Petrograd, Jews lorm ts.3 per cent of the total, that is to tsay, the Jewish residents in the oa.pit.id of the Kmpiro, are nearly thri-.< numerous as they normally" should he, for the Jews in Russia only mini tier ahoui ;i per cent of the total population. When it is remember-i-d thai, Petrograd is a very long way from the regions inhabited by the main nm.-e.cs of Jeivrv the. above statist ics he--come even more eloquent, of tin- .actual situation. \\ -'s. probably unnecessary to sny mom in order to show that stntonie.n.ts about the Jewish question in Russia made by persons unfamiliar with its doi-iils must 1)0 received with caution. Sue)), doubtless 'n most cases; highly respeemblo if superficial, persons know not winy... they do when, v. ithout having any knowledge of the genesis of iho Jewish, qi estion in Roland and Russia, they set. cut to defomi an already all-powerful political organisation some six millions strongl As for the Jews themselves outfide Russia., ibr-v judge of Russian Jewry only by their own follow-coun-tryrnon of Jewish faith, and June con--equently absolutely no sound criteria by which to estimate the " Jewish Question '' in Russia, a question which is complicated and peculiar in the extreme. In other countries than Russia tin l Jew i;i a Frenchman. Englishman, Dutchman, etc., of the Jewsh faith, and a.s snob is deal;, with bv the Ooyornment he livc s under. Theso Western Governments are not troubled bv any "Jewish Question '" ; they, in fact, know no such 'him;;. Nor have, they any occasion to Know exactly what the' Jewish kagals in Russia, mean to the Russian Government. m >,- j} lp exfeig n( their united economic anal political pressure upon the general course of life in tho Russian State.