The Jews in the Eastern War Zone

by American Jewish Committee

5. That the officers of the Gendarmerie of Homel prohibited the supplying of food to the exiles, even though they were at the point of exhaustion from hunger and thirst?

6. That in Novozybkov individuals who sent telegrams appealing for help were arrested?

7. That the officers of the Gendarmerie, with armed threats, refused to admit to sealed cars persons who brought food to the expelled at the station of Bielitsa, on the Poliess railroad?

8. That the police officers locked the exiles in sealed cars for several days at a time?

9. That in the shipment of these exiles from Zolotonosh to Kovno and back some of them were kept in the cars ten days?

10. That the local government administration of the cities of Minsk, Samara and Rostov required the reprinting in the local paper of the story of Jewish treason in the village of Kuzhi, first published in “Nash Viestnik”?

11. That the local administration of Tashkent ordered prayer for the delivery of the army from the treachery of the Jews?

II. If the illegal acts of the authorities are known to the indicated individuals what steps were taken by them towards the punishment of the guilty and the prevention of similar breaches of law in the future?

The significance of this interpellation cannot be overestimated, insofar as the facts implied in these questions are officially accepted by the great standing committee of the Duma as worthy of cognizance. Had the questions originally proposed by the Left groups been without foundation they would have been rejected without reference to the Committee on Interpellations; and had the Committee on Interpellations found, upon examination of the evidence underlying each question by both the Right and Left deputies on the Committee, that the evidence was defective or inadequate, the interpellation would never have been reported out in this form. The fact that it was so reported indicates that the evidence was incontrovertible, and was so accepted by the Liberals and reactionaries alike. The report of the Committee is dated August 30, 1915, but as the Duma was prorogued immediately afterwards, the Government’s answer to the interpellation is not known.