The Jews, naturally enough, could not be forgotten. Besides the danger which, in common with the other distressed and disaffected subjects, they constitute to the Russian State, there were less negative reasons for their propitiation. The Russian Government was anxious to replenish the Treasury, emptied by the unfortunate war. The Jewish financiers of the West constitute a great power, and that power is known to entertain a deep and abiding hostility towards Russia. Jewish capitalists the world over are actuated by a strong desire to avenge the wrongs of their co-religionists, and they have the means of gratifying that desire. Once more the Jew’s wealth has proved potent enough to blunt the edge of prejudice. The Czar’s Ministers endeavoured to pacify the Jewish financiers by making a few trivial concessions to their persecuted brethren. M. De Plehve in May 1904, acting in direct contradiction to the views expressed in April, submitted to the Council of the Empire a Bill for repealing the law under which Jews were forbidden to reside within fifty versts of the Western frontier. It is true that the imputation that the Bill was dictated by a Jewish banker as an indispensable condition for a loan was strongly resented and repudiated in official circles. The Russians, in proof of the spontaneous nature of the proposal, declared that the Minister had, long before the necessity for loans arose, been striving towards a relaxation of Jewish disabilities. This statement has been partially corroborated by a distinguished Jewish gentleman, who also affirms from personal knowledge that M. De Plehve had for some time past endeavoured to alleviate the lot of the Russian Jews by granting to them every liberty--save emancipation.[196] It was added that the process had naturally been gradual, owing to Russian social conditions, that as early as May 1903 the Council of the Empire had passed a Bill of M. De Plehve’s permitting the Jews to reside in 103 new places, and that 65 more had been added in the autumn. At the same time a Commission had been appointed to examine the laws relating to the Jews, especially those engaged in productive labour. These statements may, of course, be literally correct. But, until M. De Plehve’s utterances of the previous April be proved to be a forgery, it is permissible to doubt their accuracy in so far as the Minister’s good-will towards the Jews is concerned.