RUSSIA AND THE JEWS.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 182, 27 January 1893, Page 6

RUSSIA AND THE JEWS.

Some time ago Colonel Weber and Dr. Kempater, two gentlemen of high standing in Now York, and members of Congress, were appointed by the United States Government to proceed to Russia and inquire into the condition and treatment of the Jewish subjects of the Czar. The result of their investigations lias recently been made public in.the form of an offical report, the details of which go to show that the hardest things that have been written with regard to the terrible persecution of the Jews in Russia do.not come up to the very terrible reality. Commencing at Moscow,the Commissioners found that there was a large number of Jewish residents in that city—traders, professional men, artisans, and laborers—who had taken up their abode there under special regulations issued by the Czar, relieving them from the operation of the rule requiring all Heb.iews to confine themselves strictly within what is known as the “ Pule of Settlement,” . These people were not supposed to be affected by the “ May laws ” which came into force some years ago, but it has for a long time been apparent that there were lobe no exceptions to the general eystem of persecution. Obstacles were placed in the way of Jewish artisans obtaining a renewal of the trade guild certificates, without which they could not obtain work. The certificates themselves were cancelled on all kinds of specious pretexts. Finally in July last the order was issued to clear out nil the Jews in Moscow ; and under this, bankers, merchants, traders, professional men, clekrs, and artisans, were compelled to sacrifice all their possessions, and leave the city, The details of the eviction would be almost too horrible for belief, were it not that names, dates, and full particulars were carefully verified by the Commissioners in every instance. One or two cases may be cited as a sample of the bulk. Patients suffering from dangerous maladies were re fased admission to the hospitals. Unmarried Jewesses were not permitted to live in the city save by abandoning their faith, or by joining the ranks of the women of the town, In one case a woman committed suicide by drowning in preference to either of those alternatives. Equally tragic is the story of a Mrs Epstein, who separated from her husband when the police made a raid upon

the house, fled to a cemetery, where she was found in the morning, and a child to which she had given birth in the night lying by her side dead. Scores of cases like this might be quoted, and another atrocity, which has over and over again been denied, was actually witnessed by the commissioners—the deportation of excelled Jews handcuffed like criminals. All these people were honest, respectable persons, gaining their livelihood by trade or by labour, and all told the same story Homes had been destroyed, businesses ruined, families separated, and the only offence to be urged against the people was that they were Jews. In the face of such a state of affairs ns is here described, it is not surprising that suggestions should have been made for outside intervention. The policy of minding one’s own business is doubtless a sound one in a general way whether the business be that of a nation or an individual. But there must be a point at which intervention is not only justified, but in the interests of our common humanity absolutely needful; and that point would seem to have been reached in connection with the Jewish persecution in Russia.