Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question Part 3

The Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg having been called, by the united suffrages of the three Courts of the Alliance, to the Sovreignty of Greece, the French Plenipotentiary requested the attention of the Conference to the particular situation in which his Government is placed, relative to a portion of the Greek population.

He represented that for many ages France has been ent.i.tled to exercise, in favour of the Catholics subjected to the Sultan, an especial protection, which His Most Christian Majesty deems it to be his duty to deposit at the present moment in the hands of the future Sovereign of Greece, so far as the provinces which are to form the new State are concerned; but in divesting himself of this prerogative, His Most Christian Majesty owes it to himself, and he owes it to a people who have lived so long under the protection of his ancestors, to require that the Catholics of the continent and of the islands shall find in the organization which is about to be given to Greece, guarantees which may be subst.i.tuted for the influence which France has. .h.i.therto exercised in their favour.

The Plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and Russia appreciated the justice of this demand; and it was decided that the Catholic religion should enjoy in the new State the free and public exercise of its wors.h.i.+p, that its property should be guaranteed to it, that its bishops should be maintained in the integrity of the functions, rights and privileges, which they have enjoyed under the protection of the Kings of France, and that, lastly, agreeably to the same principle, the properties belonging to the antient French Missions, or French Establishments, shall be recognized and respected.

The Plenipotentiaries of the three Allied Courts being desirous moreover of giving to Greece a new proof of the benevolent anxiety of their Sovereigns respecting it, and of preserving that country from the calamities which the rivalry of the religions therein professed might excite, agreed that all the subjects of the new State, whatever may be their religion, shall be admissable to all public employments, functions, and honours, and be treated on the footing of a perfect equality, without regard to difference of creed in all their relations, religious, civil or political.

(Signed) ABERDEEN MONTMOREN Y-LAVAL.

LIEVEN.

(Holland: "The European Concert in the Eastern Question," pp. 32, 33.)

(_e_) THE CONGRESS OF PARIS (1856-1858).

The Jewish Question was more expressly discussed twenty-six years later, at the Congress of Paris, and the subsidiary conferences which had to settle the great political problems arising out of the Crimean War.

Meanwhile, under the influence of Sir Moses Montefiore, and more especially of his jealousy of M. Cremieux, the Jewish Board of Deputies had plucked up a measure of courage, and had begun to take a more active interest in the larger political questions which involved the future of their foreign co-religionists. In the international discussions of the question of religious liberty which preceded the outbreak of war, the Powers only concerned themselves with the Christian communities. The French Jews at once took alarm, and the Central Consistory addressed the Emperor Napoleon III and applied to the Board of Deputies in London to make similar representations to the British Government. Both bodies had, however, been antic.i.p.ated by the personal activity of the Rothschilds in Paris and London. Baron James, through his gifted friend and co-worker, Albert Cohn, had already entered into direct negotiations with the Turkish Government, and Baron Lionel and Sir Anthony de Rothschild had interviewed Lord Clarendon, who, at their instance, had given instructions to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to take special note of the Jewish Question. Thus, when the letter of the French Consistory was read at the Meeting of the Board of Deputies on April 24, 1854, that body found that it had little to do. Nevertheless, it addressed a formal letter to Lord Clarendon on May 10, and, five days later, received an a.s.surance from him that it might rely on a favourable consideration of the situation of the Jews of Turkey at the hands of His Majesty's Government.[22]

Nevertheless, the Treaty of Paris of 1856, which more or less settled all the questions arising out of the war, does not mention the Jews in any of its articles. This is not to say that it did not fulfil Lord Clarendon's pledges. As a matter of fact, it deals with both the situation of the Jews in Turkey and with that of the Jews in the liberated Princ.i.p.alities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Thus, Article IX, which takes note of the Turkish _Hatti-Humayoun_ of February 18, 1856, is intended to refer to the Jews as well as to all other non-Mussulmans.

The history of this aspect of the Article is a little curious. Shortly after the outbreak of the war in 1854, Turkey prepared a draft treaty of peace containing an article providing for the religious liberty of Christian communities. Through the inter-position of Baron James de Rothschild of Paris, this article was reconsidered, and another was inserted granting equal rights to all Ottoman subjects, without distinction of creed. This was the germ of the famous _Hatti-Humayoun_.

That the latter was intended to deal equally with Jews and Christians is shown by its Article II, in which the same privileges are expressly granted to the Turkish Grand Rabbis as to the ecclesiastical heads of the Christian confessions.[23]

The absence of any direct reference to the Jews, or even to equal rights for all religious communities in the Princ.i.p.alities, is less satisfactory. The omission is in the first place due to the circ.u.mstance that the Treaty in itself is incomplete. Articles XXIII, XXIV, and XXV refer the question of the const.i.tutional reorganisation of the Princ.i.p.alities to a Commission which was to meet at Bucharest and consult Divans of the two Princ.i.p.alities with a view to making the necessary recommendations to the Powers.[24] This Commission did not report until 1858, when its proposals were considered by a fresh Conference of the Powers, which based upon them the scheme embodied in the Convention of Paris of August 19 of that year. The question of religious liberty is dealt with in Article XLVI of that instrument.[25]

Originally it was intended to a.s.sure complete emanc.i.p.ation and equality for all non-Christian communities in the Princ.i.p.alities, and articles to this effect were adopted by the preparatory Conference of Constantinople, in its Protocol of February 11, 1856, with the express design of relieving the Jews, whose sufferings had already become a matter of European notoriety.[26] The Rumanians, however, were already strongly hostile to Jewish emanc.i.p.ation, and the reigning Prince of Moldavia misled the Powers with specious promises of a type which has since become bitterly familiar to the Jews all over the world.[27] The Report of the Bucharest Commission of 1858 accepted these promises and excluded all references to Religious Liberty from its scheme.[28] The first draft of the Convention submitted to the Conference of the Powers did likewise,[29] but ultimately a compromise amendment was introduced by which the Powers agreed (Art. XLVI) to limit political rights to Christians, while providing for the extension of these rights to non-Christians by subsequent legislative arrangements.[30] This concession to the Rumanians was made on the express pledge that the original scheme of the Conference at Constantinople would be gradually realised.[31] Needless to say, the pledge was never fulfilled. In dealing, however, with the question, the Convention of Paris had one merit. It lent no support to the subsequent theory of the Rumanians, that the Jews were foreigners in a secular sense in their own country, but, on the contrary, a.s.sumed that their status was as much that of Moldavians and Wallachians as was the status of the native Christians.

DOc.u.mENTS.

ARTICLE IX OF THE TREATY OF PARIS. _March 30, 1856._

Art. IX. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, having, in his constant solicitude for the welfare of his subjects, issued a Firman[32] which, while ameliorating their condition without distinction of religion or of race, records his generous intentions towards the Christian populations of his Empire, and wis.h.i.+ng to give a further proof of his sentiments in that respect, has resolved to communicate to the Contracting Parties the said Firman emanating spontaneously from his sovereign will.

The Contracting Powers recognise the high value of this communication.

It is clearly understood that it cannot, in any case, give to the said Powers the right to interfere, either collectively or separately, in the relations of His Majesty the Sultan with his subjects, nor in the internal administration of the Empire.

(Holland: "European Concert," &c., p. 246.)

EXTRACTS FROM THE HATTI-HUMAYOUN OF FEB. 18, 1856.

I. Les garanties promises et accordees a tous nos sujets par le _Hatti-cherif_ de Gulhane et par les lois du _Tanzimat_, sans distinction de culte, pour la securite de leur personne et de leurs biens, et pour la conservation de leur honneur, sont rappelees et consacrees de nouveau; il sera pris des mesures efficaces pour que ces garanties recoivent leur plein et entier effet.

II. Sont reconnus et maintenus, en totalite, les immunites et privileges spirituels donnes et accordes par nos ill.u.s.tres ancetres, et a des dates posterieures, aux communautes chretiennes et autres, non musulmanes, etablies dans notre empire, sous notre egide protectrice.... Les patriarches, metropolitains (archeveques), delegues et eveques, ainsi que les grands-rabbins, preteront serment a leur entree en fonctions, d'apres une formule qui sera concertee entre notre Sublime-Porte et les chefs spirituels des differentes communautes.

III....L'administration des affaires temporelles des communautes chretiennes et autres, non musulmanes, sera placee sous le sauvegarde d'un conseil, dont les membres seront choisis parmi le clerge et les laques de chaque communaute.

VII. Le gouvernement prendra les mesures energiques et necessaires pour a.s.surer a chaque culte, quel que soit le nombre de ses adherents, la pleine liberte de son exercice.

VIII. Tout mot et toute expression ou appellation tendant a rendre une cla.s.se de mes sujets inferieure a l'autre, a raison du culte, de la langue ou de la race, sont a jamais abolis et effaces du protocole administratif.

IX. La loi punira l'emploi, entre particuliers, ou de la part des agents de l'autorite, de toute expression ou qualification injurieuse ou blessant.

X. Le culte de toutes les croyances et religions existant dans mes etats, y etant pratique en toute liberte, aucun de mes sujets ne sera empeche d'exercer la religion qu'il professe.

XI. Personne ne sera ni vexe, ni inquiete a cet egard.

XII. Personne ne sera contraint a changer de culte ou de religion.

XIII. Les agents et employes de l'etat sont choisis par nous; ils sont nommes par decret imperial; et comme tous nos sujets, sans distinction de nationalite, seront admissibles aux emplois et services publics, ils seront aptes a les occuper, selon leur capacite, et conformement a des regles dont l'application sera generale.

XIV. Tous nos sujets, sans difference ni distinctions, seront recus dans les ecoles civiles et militaires du gouvernement, pourvu qu'ils remplissent les conditions d'age et d'examen specifies dans les reglements organiques des dites ecoles.

XV. De plus, chaque communaute est autorisee a etablir des ecoles publiques pour les sciences, les arts et l'industrie; seulement le mode d'enseignement et le choix des professeurs de ces sortes d'ecoles seront places sous l'inspection et le controle d'un conseil mixte d'instruction publique, dont les membres seront nommes par nous.

(Holland: _op. cit._, pp. 330-332.)

CONFERENCES OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1856).--_Protocol of Feb. 11._

XIII. Tous les cultes et ceux qui les professent jouiront d'une egale liberte et d'une egale protection dans les deux princ.i.p.autes.

XV. Les etrangers pourront posseder des biens-fonds en Moldavie et en Valachie, en acquittant les memes charges que les indigenes, et en se soumettant aux lois.

XVI. Tous les Moldaves et tous les Valaques seront, sans exception, admissibles aux emplois publics.

XVIII. Toutes les cla.s.ses de la population, sans aucune distinction de naissance ni de culte, jouiront de l'egalite des droits civils, et particulierement du droit de propriete, dans toutes les formes; mais l'exercice des droits politiques sera suspendu pour les indigenes places sous une protection etrangere.

(Ubicini, "La Question des Princ.i.p.autes," p. 13.)

ART. XLVI OF THE CONVENTION OF PARIS OF AUGUST 10, 1858.

XLVI. Les Moldaves et les Valaques seront tous egaux devant la loi, devant l'impot, et egalement admissibles aux emplois publics dans l'une et l'autre Princ.i.p.aute.

Leur liberte individuelle sera garantie. Personne ne pourra etre retenu, arrete, ni poursuivi que conformement a la loi.

Personne ne pourra etre exproprie que legalement, pour cause d'interet public, et moyennant indemnite.

Les Moldaves et les Valaques de tous les rits Chretiens jouiront egalement des droits politiques. La jouissance de ces droits pourra etre etendue aux autres cultes par les dispositions legislatives.[33]

Tous les privileges, exemptions, ou monopoles, dont jouissent encore certaines cla.s.ses, seront abolis; et il sera procede sans r.e.t.a.r.d a la revision de la loi qui regle les rapports des proprietaires du sol avec les cultivateurs, en vue d'ameliorer l'etat des paysans.

("Brit. and For. State Papers," vol. xlviii. pp. 77-78.)