During the interwar period and the early times of the Second World War, in Romania, many Jews were able to emigrate without restrictions as the Romanian governments of the time wanted to reduce the country's Jewish population. By this time, Romania's Jewish population was remarkably sizeable, about 756,930 people in 1930. These constituted large percentages of the population in some regions, such as Western Moldavia (6.5%), Bessarabia (7.2%, with many still speaking Yiddish), Transylvania (10%) and Bukovina (10.8%). In 1940, when the National Legionary State was established, many Jews asked the state to support their emigration, which was accepted. Subsequently, Ion Antonescu, ruler of Romania, issued a draft order to establish a government directorate for the subject of Jewish emigration, which could never be carried out due to the Legionnaires' rebellion of 1941.