TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3170, 26 August 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1881.

The perneci-.tKais to which the Jews in Russia find Germany hare been subjected oflnte have had tbe effect of bindiug that remarkable people still more closely together. It is but natural that the sufferings of one portion of the race should inspire the sympathies of the other. And we are glad to see that iv these distant colonies— in this " tbe nethermost part of the earth "— the ready hand of help ia held out to the unfortunate Israelites in Europe. But from a most unexpected quarter has Owme to the persecuted the voice of sympathy, ?id the offer of a home in a happier country. A nation that has earned for itself the character of being the most intolerant in Europe has made this offer, and Spain, that formerly drove the Jews out of the land by thousands, now invites the descendants of those people to return. It is not sixty year? ago since Jews were publicly burned in the squares of the eifies of Spain ; and at tbe close of the fifteenth century some 350,000 Israelites, comprising 70,000 families, were driven out of the country. And now the Jews of Russia have been offered an asylum in the country of Torquemada and the Holy Office. They have come to the resolution of transporting their homes, together with their trades, industries, enterprise, and active spirit, from Russia. They could not booe for a refuge, says the Journal dcs Debate, either in Germany or the Lower Valley of the T)aai?l)?, Germany, which, like Home, has for a long time had its Ghettos, and, in particular, its Yudenptrasse at Frankfort, presents to the civilised world the sad spectacle of ?„_ anti-Semitic notation, which is fai from having calmed dowa. Koumania has disti-y'Jihhe'* itself among all European Dations by its h_ued of the Jews, which has remained very violent amongst the less enlightened class. Looked upon badly in Germany, detested in Roumania, and threatened in Russia, they had to turn to more hospitable nations. They applied to Turkey ; they t_cught of settling in South America ; and, lastly, they thought of Spain. If the Jews think of returning to the country which they enriched by commerce and industry, which they adorned by the cultivation of letters during so many centuries, they have chosen a singularly opportune moment to execute theii design. It is not a secret for anyone that the young King Alphocso XII. has often deplored the fault committed by his ancestors, that be is possessed with the desire to repair it, and will do all iv his power to wipe out this stain. Brought up himself in the hard school of exile, he is able to learn the history of his country far from it, which is, perhaps, the best way cf knowing it well. Alphonso XII. has known how to profit by his stay in Paris, and he carried away from amongst tbe French a wish to repair a great injustice. Tbe Jews applied to the Ambassador of his Catholic Majesty at Constantinople, asking whether it would be possible for thsm to return to the Peninsula, not individually, which they already have the right to do, but perhaps to the number of 60,000. It ie a regular migration, which would bring back into tbe Peninsula some of the families who abandoned it at the end of the fifteenth century, plundered and persecuted. Count Kascon, on receiving the request of the fugitives, hastened to afk instructions from Madrid. On the arrival of the telegram from Constantinople the young King cried that the gates of Spain were wide open to those whom she still considers as her children. " Scarcely anything happier than this could happen to us," said the King to his Ministers. "What a glory for me if I can thus efface the disgrace bequeathed to me by my ancestors ! I expect from you that you will do everything in your power to attain this result."