ANTI-JEWISH RIOTS AT BALTA.

Patea Mail, 28 July 1882, Page 4

ANTI-JEWISH RIOTS AT BALTA.

It is now said that the riot at Balta, ■which is the second town in the South ns regards the number of Jewish inhabitants, produced more misery and destruction than any of the worst disturbances of last year. Two Jews are now reported killed, and two wounded ; •while a hundred were slightly hurt, and 15,000 persons were rendered homeless. Il'is also affirmed that women were outraged. The account sent from Vienna to the Telegraph says :—“ At first the Jews left to themselves, drove off their assailants ; but the police, who had been tranquil spectators while the mob attacked the Israelites, now interfered, and arrested many, declaring that the Jews had no right to defend themselves. Encouraged by this conduct, the mob renewed the attack. Not a single family was spared. Two persons were killed and 120 wounded. Wives and girls were subjected to violence in presence of their husbands and fathers. Hundreds of familie.s are camping in the railway station, stripped of everything they possessed, and in great danger of starvation.” According to the Vienna correspondent of the Telegraph-- 11 The whole city was a spectacle of desolation, as though some terrible epidemic had swept, through it. The streets were covered with ashes, feathers, and other debris. Many of the Jewish houses were without doors or windows. The flooring was torn up. The police came up, and arrested many of the Jews, saying that they itad no right to offer armed resistance. This encouraged the mob, and later in the day girls and women were ill-used, while their fathers and husbands lay near dangerously wounded or dying.” Two agents of the Jewish community at Odessa, who were despatched to Balta with pecuniaty aid for the victims, have returned with the following among other items of information: —“Balta has a population of 25,000 inhabitants, onefifth of whom are Christians and the remainder Jews, The rioting lasted two days. lit that time the rioters gutted 1500 houses, and destroyed everything they could lay their hands on belonging to the Jews, whether furniture, utensils, apparel, or merchandise, and thereby mined 2,500 Jewish families. Only fifty houses are owned by Jews, and these, which belonged To the more wealthy classes, escaped. It is reported that 120 persons were wounded, and that three Jews lost their lives, being smothered under the debris.” Vienna despatches state that the Governor of Podolia, M, Miloradovitch, as soon as the facts came to his knowledge, started at once for the scene of the outbreak, and soon re-established tranquility. Two hundred arrests were made by his orders. The Russian telegraph officials refuse to transmit any news relative to the anti-Jewish troubles.