The daily worker., 1934-05-10
SOUiet Union Grants Jewish
Autonomy to Biro-BidjanA
Continued from Page y
"HAROLD G. CAMPBELL,
Superintendent of Schools"


refugees who are invited to partici-
pate in building up an autonomous
Jewish Republic in Biro-Bidian. -
Llmitless Opportunities
They cited the following words
of Lord Marley, member of the
British House of Lords and World
of the Committee to Aid
of German Fascism, who
visited BRO -Bidjan in october, 1888:
"The number of Jews who could
be received in Bro -Bidjan is quite
unlimited and there is no problem
Of an existing local population to
be dealt with. Whereas in Pales-
tine the number of Jews able to
be received is strictly limited,
there is widespread and inCreas-
ingly bitter opposition on the part
Of the Arab population, bitter
ness which, 1t has been laid down
by the present government, would
he intensified IL there were ex-
cessive Jewish immigration.
$50 strong is this feeling that
the British government has only
consented to participate in the
work of the high commissioner
(appointed by the League of Ma
tions to deal with refugees--Jew-
ish and others-coming from Ger
many provided that Palestine is
excluded from his field of action
in finding new homes for the
refugees.
None of these difficulties arise
with regard to Biro- -Bidian, and
the Soviet Government has Of
fered free transport, free land to
suitable Jewish families who are
willing and desirous Of going to
Biro-Bidian, who are ready to
take part in the normal comrnu-
nal life of the area. ;"
In pamphlet published recently
by Icor, Lord Marley refutes the
many lies spread by petty-bouYgeois
Jewish nationalist groups about thi;
"arid" and bleak" territory tt
which the Jewish people of the So
Wet Union are "banished as, in thC
days of the Czar, revolutionistI
were banished to Northern Siberia.
Marley, who spent some time ir
travelling through Bro -Bidjan, de-
clares:
THE country consists of wide
valleys either completely open ol
lightly wooded with low hills or
either side covered with fir, oak anc
birch and with thick undergrowth
The whole effect is very beautiful
and the natural growth of flowers
of which there are $50 varieties, has
rendered possible the wide orgsniza'
ton of bee farms (each consisting
of about 1000 hives, from which
the honey is produced, which is Sc
we'll known in the Far East.
THE soil is fertile and produces
good crops; there is plenty of water
in some cases too much; but drain
age operations have already beer
carried out and the possibility o.
flooding in the agricultural areas il
now no longer a danger. The eli
mate is extremely healthy. In sum-
mer it is hot, but not too hot fol
comfort in winter it is cold will
snow, but with a brilliant sunshine
similar to conditions in Switzerland
The rainy season is concentrates
into about six weeks, round abou
the month of July, and the rest o
the year sunshine can be countet
on as normal"
In granting autonomy to thi
fruitful region, the Soviet Union i
continuing a, policy which is hasi
to its Marxist-Leninist principles
Lenin, as far back as 1914-1917, de
clared in THE Imperialist War
Imperialism is the period of an
Increasing oppression of the ma
tions of the whole world by a
handful of great nations; the
struggle for a Socialist interna-
tional revolution against i'm
periaIism is therefore impossible
without the recognition of the
rights of nations to self-determin-
alton. No peoples depressing
other peoples can be free Marx
and Engels). No proletariat recon-
CLING itself to the least violation
by its nation of the rights of
other nations can be Socialist. .
This policy was again, and NOR
specifically, stated in the famou
decree of Nov. Is. 1917, in which tn
Soviet Government established tn
equality of it's nations. This decree