More than 140 Zionist leaders have been seized by the police in Rumania during the past two weeks and several Jewish members of the Communist Party have been arrested on charges of being “freemasons,” Rumanian immigrants who arrived at Haifa from Constanza, reported today.
They said that a propaganda trial of some of the arrested Zionists on anti-state charges would be held soon in Bucharest. The Rumanian Communists have stepped up the campaign against Israel and are doing everything possible to deter Jews from seeking to emigrate to the Jewish State, the immigrants reported. Large posters have been put showing naked children in the Israel immigrant camps and bearing the admonition: “Don’t leave the advantages you enjoy in Rumania for unemployment and misery in Israel.”
The arrivals reported that new Rumanian exchange rates increase emigration difficulties since many prospective emigrants do not have enough money to pay their rail fares to Constanza, port of embarkation for Israel. While prospective emigrants to Israel have received 1,000 exit permits, they said, 500 of them were unable to use the permits because they lacked the train fare to Constanza.
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