it failed to receive any contractual solution. At the sitting of August
8th a scheme of religious, scholastic and cultural liberty was
discussed, but no agreement was reached, owing to irreconcilable
differences between the Patriarchists and the Exarchists. Moreover, the
scheme as drawn up was confined to Christian communities (Protocol No.
10). At the sitting of August 5th, the question was raised in its wider
aspects by a communication from the United States Government expressing
the hope that a provision would be introduced into the Treaty "according
full civil and religious liberty to the inhabitants of any territory
subject to the sovereignty of any of the five Powers, or which might be
transferred from the jurisdiction of any one of them to that of
another." This also met with no adequate response. M. Maioresco, the
Chief Roumanian plenipotentiary, expressed the opinion that such a
provision was unnecessary, "as the principle inspiring it had long been
recognised, in fact and in law, by the public law of the Constitutional
States represented at the Conference," but he added that he was willing
to declare on behalf of the plenipotentiaries that "the inhabitants of
any territory newly acquired will have, without distinction of religion,
the same full civil and religious liberty, as all the other inhabitants
of the State." In this view the other plenipotentiaries concurred.
(Protocol No. 6.)
The Jewish Conjoint Committee regret that they are unable to accept
either the reasoning or the assurances of M. Maioresco for the following
reasons:--
1. Even if it were true that the constitutions of all the five
contracting States assure civil and religious liberty to their
inhabitants without distinction of religion--Roumania herself is a
flagrant exception--it would not afford as permanent a guarantee as an
international obligation. The circumstances which render such a
guarantee necessary in the present case have already been referred to
above.
2. In previous territorial changes in the Near East, the liberal
provisions of the constitutions of the annexing States have not been
held sufficient for the protection of religious minorities. Thus, in
1864, when the Ionian Islands were transferred to Greece, the Powers
specifically extended to the new territories the civil and religious
liberty obligations imposed on the Hellenic Kingdom in 1830 (see Article
IV of the Treaty of London of March 20th, 1864). Again in 1881, when
Thessaly was ceded to Greece, the religious liberty obligations of 1830
were repeated in the Treaty of Cession for the benefit of the Mussulman
population (Convention of May 14th, 1881, Article VIII). A similar
course was adopted by the Great Powers in 1886, when Eastern Roumelia
was virtually annexed to Bulgaria (Article IV of Arrangement of April
5th, 1886; _cf._ Eastern Roumelia Statute, Article XXIV).
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.
We are, Sir,
Your humble and obedient Servants,
D. L. ALEXANDER,
_President, London Committee of Deputies of British Jews_,
CLAUDE G. MONTEFIORE,
_President, Anglo-Jewish Association_.
* * * * *
TO THE RT. HON. SIR EDWARD GREY, BART., M.P., K.G., ETC., HIS MAJESTY'S
PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ETC., ETC., ETC.
FOREIGN OFFICE,
_October 29th, 1913_.
GENTLEMEN,--I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of October 13th, and to observe in reply that the
Articles of the Treaty of Berlin, to which you refer, are in no way
abrogated by the territorial changes in the Near East, and remain as
binding as they have been hitherto as regards all territories covered by
those Articles at the time when the Treaty was signed.
His Majesty's Government will, however, consult with the other Powers as
to the policy of reaffirming in some way the provisions of the Treaty of
Berlin for the protection of the religious and other liberties of
minorities in the territories referred to, when the question of giving
formal recognition by the Powers to the recent territorial changes in
the Balkan Peninsula is raised.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
EYRE A. CROWE.
THE CONJOINT JEWISH COMMITTEE.
* * * * *
CONJOINT JEWISH COMMITTEE,
19 FINSBURY CIRCUS, E.C.
_17th November, 1913_.
SIR,--We have had the honour of receiving the letter of the 29th ult.
addressed to us on your behalf by Sir Eyre A. Crowe, and we have duly
submitted it to our colleagues of the Conjoint Jewish Committee.
We are desired by the Committee to thank you for this communication and
to express their lively satisfaction with the assurances you are good
enough to give them and which appear to them to meet the necessities of
the case they had the honour of placing before you.
The Committee propose, with your permission, to submit to you at a later
stage, for the consideration of His Majesty's Government, an amended
formula of civil and religious liberty in the Balkans, which they think
will more clearly express the intentions of the Conference of London and
the Congress of Berlin than the provisions on the same subject contained
in the Protocol No. 3 of 1830 and the Treaty of 1878. They trust that
His Majesty's Government may find it possible to make this or some
similar amendment the basis for the proposed consultation with the other
Great Powers, as they venture to think that in this way a means may be
found of obviating a repetition of the misunderstandings by which the
Jews of Roumania have hitherto been deprived of the rights sought to be
conferred upon them by the Treaty of Berlin, besides securing the rights
of other religious and racial minorities in the Balkans on a footing of
perfect equality.
We, are, Sir,
Your most obedient humble servants,
DAVID L. ALEXANDER,
_President, London Committee of the Deputies of British Jews_,
CLAUDE G. MONTEFIORE,
_President, Anglo-Jewish Association_.
* * * * *
TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD GREY, BART., M.P., K.G., ETC., ETC., ETC.
CONJOINT JEWISH COMMITTEE,
19 FINSBURY CIRCUS, E.C.
_12th March, 1914_.
SIR,--Referring to the letter we had the honour of addressing to you on
the 17th November last, we now beg to submit to you, for the
consideration of His Majesty's Government, a revised formula of civil
and religious liberty in the Balkans in the hope that His Majesty's
Government may be able to recommend it to the other Great Powers
signatory of the Treaty of Berlin for application to the territories
which have recently changed hands in the Near East under the provisions
of the Treaties of London and Bucharest, and their subsidiary diplomatic
Acts.
As you are aware, Civil and Religious Liberty in Bulgaria, Montenegro,
Servia and Roumania is at present guaranteed in identic terms by
Articles V, XXVII, XXXIV-V, XLIV of the Treaty of Berlin, and in Greece
by the concluding _alinéa_ of Protocol No. 3 of the Conference of London
of the 3rd February 1830. We beg to suggest that in the extension of
these stipulations to the new territories they shall be elucidated by
the addition to each of the following paragraph:--
* * * * *
All persons of whatever religious belief born or residing in the
territories annexed to the Kingdom of---- in virtue of the Treaties of
London and Bucharest, and who do not claim a foreign nationality and
cannot be shown to be claimed as nationals of a foreign state shall be
entitled to full civil and political rights as nationals of the Kingdom
of---- in accordance with the foregoing stipulations.
* * * * *
Some slight modification of this paragraph will be required to meet the
special circumstances of each case, as, for example, the omission of the
reference to the Treaty of London in the case of Roumania, and perhaps,
the insertion of the paragraph before the final _alinéa_ of Article XLIV
of the Treaty of Berlin instead of its addition to that Article.
In making this proposal we are chiefly actuated by a desire to obviate
as far as may be possible a repetition in the territories annexed to the
Kingdom of Roumania of the cruel evasion of Article XLIV of the Treaty
of Berlin by which the native Jews of Roumania have hitherto been
deprived of their civil and political rights. It will be within your
recollection that this evasion was contrived by arbitrarily declaring
all the native Jews to be _ipso facto_ foreigners and by submitting them
in that capacity to harsh disabilities which, while apparently
applicable to all foreigners, in reality only affected them. We are
further impressed by the fact that Bulgaria, Servia and Greece have each
acquired a considerable addition to their Jewish populations and,
although we acknowledge most gratefully the fidelity with which those
States have hitherto performed their obligation in regard to civil and
religious liberty, we think it wise, in view of the evil precedent
created by Roumania, to strengthen the hands of their rulers and
statesmen by extending those obligations in the form we now suggest to
the territories they have recently acquired.
Our aims will, we think, be attained by the formula suggested above
without in any way enlarging the scope of the original stipulations, as
those stipulations were understood by their authors and the majority of
the States to which they have hitherto been applied. It is to be noted
that a similar amendment of Article XLIV was actually suggested by the
Italian representative, the Count de Launay, at the Berlin Congress,
with a view to obviating the very evasion of the Treaty subsequently
effected by Roumania, and it was only rejected by the Congress because
it was desired to adopt an identic formula for all the Balkan States and
because it was felt that the formula as it stood "paraît de nature à
concilier tous les intérêts en cause." (British and Foreign State
Papers, vol. lxix. pp. 1058-9.)
Now that it has been shown that this anticipation was illusory, we
venture to hope that His Majesty's Government may see their way to
realize the intentions of the Berlin Congress by suggesting to the Great
Powers the amendment we have proposed, and that their recognition of the
territorial changes in the Near East will be made conditional upon its
adoption by all the annexing States, and more particularly by the
Kingdom of Roumania.
We are, Sir,
Your most obedient humble servants,
DAVID L. ALEXANDER,
_President, London Committee of Deputies of British Jews_,
CLAUDE G. MONTEFIORE,
_President, Anglo-Jewish Association_.
TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD GREY, BART., M.P., K.G., ETC., ETC., ETC.
* * * * *
(For the humanitarian interventions on behalf of the Jews of Morocco see
"The Conferences of Madrid and Algeciras," _infra_, pp. 88-99.)
(_i_) THE JEWISH QUESTION AND THE BALANCE OF POWER (1890 AND 1906).
It will be noted that none of the diplomatic interventions took
cognizance of the ill-treatment of the Jews in Russia,[49] although
until the recent Revolution it afforded, in magnitude and cruelty, the
worst example of religious persecution known to modern Europe.[50] The
cynical reason has already been indicated. But if international politics
has affected to ignore the Jewish question in Russia, that question has
not been without a very distinct influence on the evolution of the
European international system. No survey of the Jewish problem in
international politics would be complete without a reference to the
curious part played by the Russo-Jewish question in the orientation of
Russian policy which made for the alliance with France and through it
for the Triple Entente. It is well known that even after the termination
of the Russo-German secret treaty of mutual neutrality in 1890, the Tsar
Alexander III remained for a long time reluctant to come to terms with
Republican France. Towards the end of 1890 there was a fresh outbreak of
official anti-Semitism in Russia, and the bitter cry of the persecuted
Jews was heard all over Europe. At that moment it happened that
negotiations for a large loan had been entered into by the Russian
Treasury with the house of Rothschild, and a preliminary contract had
actually been signed. As soon as the news of the persecutions reached
New Court, Lord Rothschild resolved to break off the negotiations. At
his instance, M. Wyshnigradski, the Russian Finance Minister, was
informed by the Paris House that unless the oppression of the Jews were
stopped they would be compelled to withdraw from the loan operation.
Deeply mortified by this attempt on the part of a Jewish banking firm to
deal with him _de puissance à puissance_, the Tsar peremptorily
cancelled the contract and ordered that overtures should be made to a
non-Jewish French syndicate headed by M. Hoskier of Paris. Thus was
forged the main financial link in the chain of common interests which
soon after led to the Dual Alliance. Incidentally, it may be mentioned
that one of the effects of the Alliance was to secure to the Tsar a much
larger immunity from criticism in his persistent ill-treatment of the
Jews.[51]
Fifteen years later the Jewish question also played a part in the
curious Russo-German _rapprochement_ which nearly wrecked the Dual
Alliance. Much light has been shed upon this incident by the recent
publication of the late Tsar's secret correspondence with the German
Emperor[52] and other Russian State documents, notably a Memorandum on
the Jewish question drawn up by Count Lamsdorf in January 1906.[53]
Negotiations for the adhesion of Russia to the Anglo-French Entente had
been opened in the winter of 1903, but owing to the war with Japan and
the revolutionary outbreak in Russia the Tsar's views on the subject had
changed. Worked on by the German Emperor, he imagined himself a victim
of English intrigue, and he concluded with the Kaiser at Bjoerkoeon July
23, 1905, the bases of a new Triple Alliance to consist of Russia,
Germany, and France. While the Treaty was still unratified certain
reactionaries in Russia seized the opportunity of endeavouring to give
it a specially anti-Jewish bias. On the one hand the bureaucracy had
persuaded themselves that the Jews were the main authors of the October
Revolution, and on the other Count Witte and his colleagues in the
Cabinet were furious at the renewed rebuffs they had received at the
hands of the House of Rothschild in their efforts to raise new loans on
the Paris and London markets.[54] It was in these circumstances that
Count Lamsdorf prepared a Memorandum proposing to the Tsar that an
agreement should be concluded with Germany providing for the special
_surveillance_ of Jewish activities on the lines of a secret Protocol
which had been drawn up by the two Powers on March 14, 1904, for the
similar _surveillance_ and extradition of Anarchists.[55] At the same
time the Count suggested that the Pope should be asked to adhere to this
new Holy Alliance. This strange proposal was approved by the Tsar, who
ordered the immediate initiation of negotiations with the
Wilhelmstrasse. In due course this instruction was acted upon,[56] but
in the following May Count Lamsdorf fell, and with the entry of M.
Izvolsky into the Russian Foreign Office a new and saner direction was
given to Russian Foreign policy. Nothing more was heard either of the
Bjoerkoe Treaty or of the proposed Triple Alliance against the Jews.
DOCUMENT.
* * * * *
THE PROPOSED ANTI-SEMITIC TRIPLE ALLIANCE.
(The footnotes appended to the following document are those of Count
Lamsdorf himself. Footnotes by the Editor will be found at the end.)
_Secret._
ON THE ANARCHISTS.
The events of the year 1905, which became particularly acute at the
beginning of October last, and, after a number of so-called "strikes,"
culminated in an armed revolt at Moscow and in other cities and
localities of the Empire, show quite clearly that the Russian
revolutionary movement, apart from its deep social economic causes of an
_internal_ nature, has also a quite definite _international_ character.
This side of the revolutionary movement, which deserves very serious
attention, manifests itself chiefly in the fact that it is supported to
a large extent from abroad.
This is clearly indicated by the striking phenomenon that the Russian
revolutionists dispose of an enormous quantity of _arms_ imported from
abroad, as well as of considerable _pecuniary means_, since there can be
no doubt that the revolutionary movement hostile to the Government,
including the organising of various kinds of strikes, must have cost the
revolutionaries large sums of money.
Since it must be recognised that such support of the revolutionary
movement with arms and money could hardly be set to the account of
foreign governments (with the exception of certain isolated cases, as
for instance, the support of the Finnish movement by Sweden, and perhaps
the partial support of the Polish movement by Austria), one inevitably
arrives at the further conclusion that the support of our revolutionary
movement enters into the calculations of some _foreign capitalist
organisations_.
This result must be coupled with the fact that the Russian revolutionary
movement is altogether distinguished by an alien racial character, since
it was precisely the various allogenes--the Armenians, Georgians, Letts,
Esthonians, Finns, Poles, etc.--who rose one after another against the
Imperial Government for the purpose of obtaining, if not complete
political autonomy, at least equal rights with the native population of
the Empire. When one considers, moreover, that, as is established with
sufficient certainty, among these allogenes a most important part is
played by the Jews, who have figured and still figure as a specially
active and aggressive element of the revolution, whether as individuals,
or as leaders of the movement, or in the shape of entire organisations
(_e.g._ the Jewish Bund in the Western region), one may assume with
certainty that the aforesaid support of the revolutionary movement from
abroad emanates precisely from _Jewish_ capitalist circles.
In this respect one cannot ignore the coincidence of several phenomena
which could hardly be accidental. This coincidence rather logically
leads to the further result that our revolutionary movement is not only,
as already stated, _supported_ from abroad, but to a certain extent also
_directed_ from there. The strikes broke out with particular force
precisely in October last, that is to say, at a time when our Government
was making the attempt to bring about a large foreign loan without the
participation of the Rothschilds,[A] and just in the nick of time for
the frustration of the realisation of that financial scheme. The panic
provoked by it among the holders of Russian securities and the hurried
sale of those securities could not but procure in the end, as was safely
to be expected, new profits for the Jewish capitalists and bankers, who
speculated consciously and openly, as in Paris for instance, on the fall
of Russian securities.[57]
On the other hand, the hostile movement against the Government, which
flared up immediately after the promulgation of the Manifesto of October
30th, assumed for a time milder forms as soon as the bulk of the Russian
people, of whom the revolutionists had taken no account at first,
responded to the hostile manifestations against the Government by
pogroms upon the Jews.[B]
This connexion between the Russian revolutionary movement and the
foreign Jewish organisations is, moreover, confirmed in an obvious
manner by some significant facts which have even percolated through the
Press. Thus, for instance, the above-mentioned wholesale importation of
arms into Russia, which, as it transpires from the Agency reports, is
carried on very largely from the continent of Europe _via England_,
becomes quite intelligible when one considers that already in June 1905,
precisely in England, an Anglo-Jewish Committee for collecting donations
for the equipment of fighting groups among Russian Jews was openly
organised with the most active co-operation of the well-known Russophobe
publicist Lucien Wolf.[C] On the other hand, on account of the
melancholy consequences of the revolutionary agitation, which recoiled
upon the Jews themselves, in the very same England a Committee of Jewish
capitalists was founded under the presidency of Lord Rothschild, which
concentrated enormous sums of money, collected by way of subscriptions
in France, England and Germany, for the ostensible purpose of granting
relief to the Jewish subjects of Russia who had suffered by the pogroms.
Lastly, the Jews in America are organising collections both for the
victims and for the arming of the Jewish youths, without formally
separating these two aims from one another.[58][D] There is thus no
room for doubt as to the close connexion of the Russian revolution with
the Jewish question in general, and with the foreign Jewish
organisations in particular, which connexion is already perfectly clear
from the point of view of its fundamental principles, since the founders
of the Socialist doctrine, Lassalle and Marx, who wield so great an
influence on the present mind of the Russian University youth, were
notoriously both of Jewish origin. Nor can it be in any way doubted that
the practical direction of the Russian revolutionary movement is in
Jewish hands. While our newspapers pass over, no doubt intentionally,
the leading part played by them in almost complete silence, it is no
longer deemed necessary to make a secret of it abroad, even in Socialist
circles. A member of the Jewish Working-men's Union (Bund), named
Hervaille, thus declared openly at a meeting of the Dutch Socialists at
Amsterdam on the 22nd October (November 4th) that in spite of the
persecutions to which they were subjected, it is precisely the Jews who
are standing at the head of the Russian revolutionary movement.[59] In
Italy, numerous meetings of sympathy with the said movement, which in
the course of last November were organised at Rome, Milan, Turin, etc.
ostensibly, "Pro liberta Russa," ended in manifestations "Pro ebrei
Russi."[60]