Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question: With Texts of Protocols, Treaty Stipulations and Other Public Acts and Official DocumentsWolf, Lucien
History
Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question: With Texts of Protocols, Treaty Stipulations and Other Public Acts and Official Documents
Wolf, Lucien
Jews -- Restoration
3. Roumania herself is not content to rely on the national constitutions
of the other Balkan States where the destinies of her own expatriated
brethren in race and religion are concerned. Although she persuaded the
Conference of Bucharest to reject the American proposal to insert
binding guarantees for the equitable treatment of racial and religious
minorities in the annexed territories generally, she insisted on the
adoption of an Annexe to the Protocols of the Conference pledging the
signatory States to grant equal rights and religious and scholastic
freedom to the Koutzo-Vlachs residing within their dominions. It is
difficult to understand why these Treaty guarantees should be required
for communities which have a Government at Bucharest, attached to them
by racial and religious sympathies, to look after their interests, and
not for the Jews, who have no such resource in the event of their rights
being ignored.
4. The terms of M. Maioresco's declaration in regard to "the inhabitants
of any territory newly acquired" are ambiguous, and in the case of the
Jews of the northern districts of Bulgaria, now annexed to Roumania,
might, and no doubt would be, interpreted as assimilating them to the
oppressed Jewish communities of the annexed State. Moreover, in view of
what happened to the Jews of the Dobrudja when that province was
acquired by Roumania in 1878, any unilateral assurances from the Cabinet
of Bucharest on this subject must fail to inspire confidence. The action
of the Roumanian Government on that occasion was dealt with by us in the
letter we had the honour of addressing to you on July 13th last, and it
will consequently suffice to state now that the Jews of the Dobrudja
were deprived of their national rights for thirty years after the
annexation, and even then they experienced great difficulty in obtaining
them. We cannot contemplate without anxiety the possibility of a
repetition of this application of the principle formulated by M.
Maioresco.
For these reasons the Jewish Conjoint Committee regard with grave
apprehension the omission from the Treaty of Bucharest of guarantees of
civil and religious equality for the inhabitants of the territories
which have changed hands in virtue of that instrument, and they trust
they may rely on His Majesty's Government to take such steps as will
assure to those inhabitants the full enjoyment of the high protection
accorded them by the London Protocol of 1830 and the Treaty of Berlin.
They venture to suggest that the objects they have in view might be
attained by a collective note to the States signatory of the Treaties of
London, Bucharest and Constantinople, declaring that the Great Powers
regard the Civil and Religious Liberty clauses of the Protocol of 1830
and the Treaty of Berlin as binding upon all of them within their new
frontiers and throughout all their territories. The Committee hope that
His Majesty's Government may see their way to propose such a note to
the Great Powers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account