United
States Legation,
Constantinople, June 24,
1870.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Roumania.
Telegrams from Bucharest inform us that the frightful massacre of
Israelites at Botochani is reduced to a mere students’ frolic, in
which a few window-panes were broken; that no incident whatever of
any importance occurred; that the local Jewish committee has
spontaneously thanked the central government for its vigilant
attitude, and for the measures taken to suppress this movement in
its incipiency.
If the Botochani affair has been reduced to insignificant
proportions, let us congratulate the Israelites, let us congratulate
the people of Roumania, but let us most heartily blame the Universal
Israelitic Alliance.
By what right does this association take upon itself to alarm Europe
by false reports? Does it not preceive that, by not submitting the
information received by it to a careful examination, it does as much
harm to the interests which it pretends to defend as to its own
character for reliability? The Jews of Roumania were already
sufficiently uninteresting. The Universal Israelitic Alliance is
going to make them ridiculous. What will they gain by it?
FRANCE.
[Inclosure.]
A letter from Bucharest, in the Varterlands, of Vienna, says
“The excesses which recently occurred at Botouchany have given the
press, particularly the Israelite Alliance, an opportunity for
displaying a declamatory eloquence as to the cruel treatment which
the Jews undergo in Roumania, and the barbarity and ill-will of the
government. As these prints do not, however mention the motives
[Page 654]
which led to the attach at
Botouchauy, permit me to fill up the blank, and to inform you,
though somewhat late in the day, of how things began, A band of
dishonest Jews, who had come from Soutza to that place, made some
purchases from Wallachian peasants, in a tavern near the
market-place. The price of the goods was paid by the buyers in
Roumanian, Austrian, and Russian money. One of the peasants who had
sold several sacks of corn, finding among the thalers which he had
received a piece which he considered suspicious, begged the
purchaser to change it for another. This request, though made very
quietly, nevertheless raised a terrific uproar among the Israelites,
who began to cry out, pretending that the bargain had been
concluded, and that the piece of money was good, and, while creating
a great noise and agitation, they endeavored to leave the tavern and
get away. This the other party opposed, and the more so that, during
the tumult, the purse of one of them had been abstracted. This not
having been found, and the bad coin not having been exchanged, a
squabble resulted between the two parties, in which the Jews, being
in greater force, came off best; but, on the peasants being
re-enforced, the fight assumed larger proportions, and was
transferred to the street; then stones were thrown on the
Wallachians from the top windows of houses exclusively inhabited by
Jews. This exasperated several Roumanians who had hitherto remained
simply spectators, and they joined in the conflict, which extended
all over the Jews’ quarter and ended to their disadvantage. But it
is entirely false that there was any of them killed.”
