Evening star., 1926-12-12
RUMANIAN CRISIS HOLDS 1
PERIL TO ALL OF BALKANS
Dissatisfied Minorities, Resentful Neigh
bors and Bolshevist Aims Might Add
to Trouble Once 1t Started.

with the Bukovina. She now OBJ
tained her racial frontiers, but In
doing this she included within her
frontiers very considerable minorities
of Magyars and Slavs, together with
q Saxon element which predominated
in a number of Transvlvanian cities.
In addition, she recovered the Dob
rudja from Bulgaria.
The new Rumanian kingdom has
greater area than Italy or the old
united kingdom; it has a population
in round numbers of 100000. 1t Is
essentially an agricultural state, al
though 1t has great oil deposits and
some iron. 1t Is compact. with
natural frontiers toward Russia and
Bulgaria and Serbia, from which 1t Is
divided, except in the Dobrudja, by the
Danube, but on the north and west
it's annexations have carried it be-
yond all natural frontiers into the
Hungarian plain.
The difficulties OF the Rumanian state
politically grow out of the fact that
Soviet Russia has steadily refused to
accept as final the loss of Bessarabia.
the Rulgarians continue to dream OF
recovering the Dobrudja and the
Magyars are paSsionately resolved
which contain a minority of many
hundreds of thousands of their race
brethren.
In this situation Rumania has based
her security on a series of military
treaties Of defensive character. She
is allied with Poland against Russia
and she is a member of the Little
Entente, which includes Czecho-
slovakia and Jugoslavia, the main
<Hf 1f1fo To tn fYrCI q
mon action against any effort of the
Hungarian people to reconstitute the
old kingdom of St. Stephen at the
expense of all three. With Jugo-
slavia, Rumania has also common
interest and alliance against any Bull
garian ambitions in Macedonia or in
the Dobrudja.
Works Warmly With France.
In the larger field of European af-
fairs, Rumania has generally acted
with France and has a military COM
pact with that country, but in very
recent time she has made a treaty
with Italy, which has SO far been
unpopular because 1t did not pledge
Italian recognition Of the possession
II BesSarabia, a possession which, in
eidentally, has never been officially
accepted by the United States.
But the present crisis in Rumania,
which has excited world interest, Is
domestic and not foreign. And it has
two sides, political and dynastic. Old
Rumania of the period before the war
was a country of peasants, with a
relatively small educated class, which
owned enormous estates and was on
the whole little interested In the social
sor economic conditions of the peas
antry, which were both ignorant and
exploited. The government was in
the hands of a small group and it
was at one time corrupt, inefficient
and reactionarv.
The annexation of large areas. how
ever, and particularly of the Tran
sylvania regions, brought to Rumania
national elements which. while Ru-
.nanian, were both progressive and
politically conscious. Not only were
the sections of the new Rumania,
which were larger and contained more
people than the old Kingdom, not
willing TO accept the rule of the old
order because Of geographical and
historical reasons, but they repre-
sented a far more progressive and
modern spirit.
Before the war there had been no
real opposition in Rumanian politics
and various leaders and groups had
more or less taken turns in enjoying
the pleasure and material profits OF
office. After the war there began to
develop real political parties opposed
to the old order. And these elements
of opposition began to press power
fully for agrarian reforms which
would permit the peasants to get
possession of the lands which they
cultivated. The ablest and the strong
est figure in this new liberal move
ment is DIR. Lupu, whom many Amer
leans may remember because OF his
visits to the United States.
Move Toward Democracy.
In the confusing and complex politi.
cal conditions Lupu represents q real
opposition, while the BratianoS and
Averescu, while nominally opponents.
are united in opposing the advance of
liberal and even radical ideas. All the
domestic political circumstances are
really comprehended in the fact that
Rumania is seeking now to become Il
modern and democratic state. But the
situation is complicated by the pres
ence of strong racial minoritieS and
particularly OF the Hungarians.
Before the war, as / have said.
was a Hungarian prov
ince with Rumanian majority. But
it produced many of the most striking
men in the public life of Hungary, of
whom Tia, the war prime minister,
was the most conspicuous. Count
Bethlen, the present premier, is of the
same territorial origin and belongs to
the so-called TIA school. Bethlens
ancestors were princes of Transyl.
vanla thousand years ago, when the
settled colonies on the
Carpathians to watch the passes.
Rumania has a very large Jewish
population, which has always suffered
the treatment which has fallen. to
their lot in Russia and in the border
lands generally. 1t was to establish
some method of international protec-
ton of the Jewish minorities that
Woodrow Wilson made his famous in
in the Rumanian settle
ment at Paris, which failed complete
Iy. Treatment of the Jews and the
racial minoritieS explains much If not
al of the liberal hostility to the new
Rumania, particularly in the United
States and Great Britain.
The dynastic crisis grows out of the
TACT that the present Kings health is
falling, his son because of various ro-
mantle escapades has been forced to
'enounce the throne and live in exile
n Paris, and the heir to the throne is
he eXiled Prince Carols infant son.
Certain elements in Rumania desire
he return of the exiled prince. Others
aVor a regency, In the event of the
Kings death, and there is the posi-.
,ility that the Queen herself might be
lamed regent. Civil war might result
I the champions of the exiled Prince
CAROL should seek to restore his lost
lights and others should resist. It
night come if the dynastic crisis and
lispute should lead to a real republi.
an movement.