Evening star., 1923-12-01
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

~ H.
Although a patrician to his very
finger tips. Jean Bratiano, Queen
Marie's most trusted political adviser
and prime minister of Rumania, is the
idol of the peasantry. who furnish
100000 out OF the total population
Of the 100000 Of Greater Rumania,
and he Is correspondingly execrated
by the aristocracy, to which he be-
longs by birth, and which formerly
monopolzed the ownership of the
land. They have been harsh and ty-
rannic landlords. mostly OF the abb
sentee type, who sQuandered abroad
the revenues which they extorted
from their peasant tenantry, flaunt-
ing in foreign lands the nobiliary til
ties which they were forbidden, by
Rumanian law, to bear and make use
of in their own country, and convey
ing, everywhere in Europe and In
America, completely erroneous I'M
preston of the real Rumanian peo-
ple--an impression Of what are known
in France as the rastaquouaires.
The real Rumanians, even the peas
antry, claim to be the true descend
ants of the legions who were sent to
colonize the country in the reign of
the Roman Caesar Trajan. near 1000
years ago, and are proud and self
possessed, with a great native dig
nifty of manner and bearing. especial
ly those of the older generation, who
have seen and suffered so much dur
ing the past century. including wars
and inVasfons, such as that of 1915,
and of revolutions and of economic
disaster.
Premier Bratiano, who, together
with Eleutherios Venizelos. the mas
ter statesman of Greece. and Nicholas
Pachich, the grand old man of Greater
Serbia, constitute the most outstand-
ing figures and factors in the affairs
of the southeast of Europe, has long
realized that. already prior to the
great war, in a land such as Ru-
sents the bulk Of the population.
agrarian reform was imperative; in
deed, the principal problem Of the ma
tion. Since the great war which re-
suited In the doubling of the area
and population Of the kingdom. the
where the territorial aristocracy
was almost exclusively Magyar, and,
consequently, disaffected to Ruma-
-nian rule. and determined TO spend all
the money that they could squeeze
from their Transylvanian estates, If
not in Paris, at any rate at Budapest.
The efforts to modify the system of
land tenure in Rumania so as to raise
at least some Of the peasants to the
condition of small proprietors were
fnaueurated under the previous reign.
But the measures did not go far
enough to prove satisfactory, the lots
were too small and the holders still
remained too dependent on the big
landlords for wood and grazing. More
over. Semitic money lenders took ad-
vantage of the ignorance and land
hunger of the only partially emanci-
pated peasantry. Indeed, the condi-
tions were so unsatisfactory that
law was passed IN 1880 pr1niDieins b n
antry- This eliminated in peasant
uprising In 1904 sort of "Jacquerle
which was characterized by atroci-
ties and by subsequent military sup
nression with every circumstance OF
brutality.
In 1918 Jean Bratiano. then. as now,
premier, revived the question of agra
rian reform, but was obliged to post
pone legislation on account or the
world war. Finally, In 1921, he Sc
under which communal pasturages
were established throughout the king
dom and some 2O,O00,000 acres of land
were expropriated and transferred to
the terrible Woodworking peasantry
] who displayed the greatest eagerness