RIOTS ON THE CONTINENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1089, 1 November 1883, Page 2

RIOTS ON THE CONTINENT.

Violent anti-Jewish riots commenced at Zala Egeraaek, in Western Hungary, on August 23, and continued with increasing violence on the 24th and 25th, after the rioters had been reinforced by a number of peasants from the neighborhood armed with muskets. The military were compelled to intervene, n l a serious conflict ensued between them and the rioters, in which there were several killed and wounded on both sides. The destruction of property is des ribad as terrible. Disturbances have also occurre I at Csurgo, Keszthely, and Kaniza. The riots are said to be rapidly spreading from county to county, and are every day assuming an increasing resemblance to the late Russian persecutions in Balta, Kieff, and Odessa. The worst cases have occurred in the district around Zala Egerssek, where brigandage has long been more or less rife. The suspension of the ordinary laws has been proclaimed in the disturbed districts of Hnngaiy, including the entire country of Zala. The Vienna correspondent of the Standard says “Every train arriving in Pesth brings a crowd of fugitive Jews —men, women and children —who have had to fly for their lives, leaving all their property behind them. According to their statements, bands of peasants, etwoen 10J and 1,000 strong, have appeared in various parts of the country. They are usually led by someone who, though attired as a peasant, generally wears a mask, and betrays by his style of expression and department the fact that he belongs to the better classes. Money, it is said, is being liberally distributed, and the lowest passions are being excited, not against the Jews personally so much as against the property they are thought to have acquired by nsury and extortion. The rumor is circulated that the Emperor, the Grown Prince and the Government desire that the Jews should be mobbed and driven from the country. The Jews assert that the soldiers are forbidden to fire upon the rioters, so that whenever the military have charged they disobeyed their orders. These accounts appear to be confirmed by the telegrams coming in every day from different parts of the country. That these disturbances have been systematically organised there is no room to doubt. But who it is that is finding the money remains a puzzle. . . . The cash, I believe, really comes from the German anti-Semitic party, who have found Hungary thoroughly ripe for the anti Jewish crusade. Letters

which I hare received from Pesthdescribe the slate of affairs there as .being essentially no better than in the rural districts. The popular hatred of the Jews surpasses description. The educated Jews are being driven out of the country. Government buildings, newspaper offices, and Banks, particularly those founded with Jewish money, are being broken into and ransacked through the hatred stirred up by the anti-Semitic journals and prints. The Government is utterly powerless to check the movement, which is at once social and national. ” In Croatia matters are reported to look even worse. A national insurrection is to be feared with only too much justice in I case the Hungarian Government persists in replacing the Magyar escutcheons and inscriptions at the public offices. In several fresh localities the populace have attacked the authorities and extorted from them written promises not to side with the Magyars. A repetition of the horrible scenes of 1848 is threatened if the Hungarians should venture to carry the latest resolutions of the Minister imo effect. A considerable number of troops, sufficient probably to maintain order, have been despatched or are under orders for Croatia. The Vienna papers strongly i urge the Government to avoid going to extreme measures, and to postpone taking satisfaction for the insult put upon the Hungarian name, as little is required now to drive the Croatians into open revolt. Inter intelligence received at Pesth from Agram states that fresh anti-Magyar disturbances have occurred at Zagorien, and were without doubt of a political nature. The peasants tore down the Government notice-boards, as a sign that they did not recognise the Hungarian Crown. Four peasants were killed. On account of the fears entertained of a renewal of the disorders, infantry, cavalry, and gendarmerie hare been sent with the utmost despatch to the s. at of the out; break. The disturbed district a have been proclaimed under martial law. It is stated that out of the 327 persons arrested during the anti-Semitic riots at Ekaterinoslav there, 153 have been liberated, 107 given into the hands of the justices of the peace, and 67 committed for trial; 346 houses were wrecked and plundered, and the losses sustained by the Jews are estimated by themselves at 611,000 roubles. Among the wounded Russians who were fired upon by the troops, fourteen more have since died at the hospitals, making a total of twentyeight killed. The Hebrew shopman whose action in striking a Christian boy for taking up one of his weights (probably in order to see if it was a false one, as -the Russians always suspect Jewish weights and measures) led to the disturbance, has been sent to prison for seven days. Other anti-Semitic alarms and symptoms of further Jew-baiting have been heard of in various other places—for instance, in Pavlograd and Rostoff, on the Don. sj§i!L few days ago there was an incipient outbreak of anti-Sometic rioting in Riga, and a sotnia of Cossacks from SVilna are now patrolling that town. Minister-President Tisza has issued an energetic circular to the municipal authoitiea in the disturbed parts of Hungary, directing them to take rigorous measures against all persons implicated in the riotous proceedings, and in case of need to call out the troops. They are to bo held responsible for any neglect or delay in carrying out the Minister’s instructions. Fresh disturbances are reported from a dozen different localities bearing impossible names, and not even to bo fuund on the map. Everywhere it is the Jews who have been plundered and ill-treated, and in some cases t ieir houses burnt down. The better class in Hungary manifest indignation and shame at (the deplorabls condition of the country.