Evening star., 1928-11-06

How we feted Queen Marie of Ru-
mania when she visited America, even
while Protestants, Catholics and Jews
we're uniting in an appeal to civilization
that justice and protection, as guaran-
teed in the Paris treaty. should be
youchsafed to all minorities in her
kingdom!
It is a kingdom Of some 100000
opulation--nearly half as great as that
of France-ruled until yesterday" by
Bratianu and his party of aristocrats,
while 80 per cent Of the people are
peasants and IS per cent of the male
peasants and 95 per cent of the female
cannot read or write. 1t is people
who, until half a century ago, were
under Turkish rule, and who after the
Great War, ending 10 years ago, We're
concocted out of the inhabitants of ad-
jacent territory and made up of mi
noritieS who cannot understand each
others speech, but who are now forced
to submit to receive instruction for
their children in foreign" language
and to support the Orthodox Greek
Church or be accused of diSloyalty to
the government and patriotically per-
secuted to the very margin of death.
X X X
Now Bratianu has been overthrown
and a new cabinet is to be formed by
the leader of the Peasant party-that
party made UP of illiterates constituting
80 per cent of the people. This is. in
deed. government crisis of epochal
Importance.
Not that the leader of the Peasant
party, DR.. j. Manu-, himself is litter
ate; far from It'll He is experienced in
politics; he has been the head of gov
ernment before. That was soon after
the close of the World War, although
it is said that he held the Office of
premier only by suffrance of the Lib
erals" led by the late j. J. Bratianu
brother of the recent premier
X 4 X
The overturning of the Bratianu
government is hinged apparently upon
mere trifle, but it could not have
occurred if conditions had not been
accumulating against the regime
which has seemed to be supreme since
Greater Rumania was formed at the
close of the World War. Intolerance
and persecution have been dominant
for 10 years, and the mere giving of
land to the peasants no longer placateS
them in the face of practical oppres-
sion in so many ways. 1t is not as
the persecution of the minorities will
cease. Ignorance makes for petty bull
lying even from the SubordinateS in
office. and Rumanians have never
known any other method of exercising
power than by bullying and persecu-
ton of the defenSeleSs.
When the negotiations of peace were
under consideration in Paris, in 1919.
the Rumanian representatives laid
great hopes for liberty upon Article
81 of the Covenant of the League of
Nations. This paragraph is quoted
from Greater Roumania," by Charles
Upson Clark:
THE high contracting parties agree
in declaring that no obstacle shall in
terfere with the free exercise of every
belief, religion or opinion whose prac-
tice Is not incompatible with public
order and morals, and that in their
respective jurisdictions no one shall
be disturbed in his life, liberty or pur-
suit of happiness by reason of his ad-
herence to such belief, religion or
opinion"
But when the Rumanians, suppos-
ing that that clause expressed Amer
icas intent, discussed it with Clemen-
ceau, he referred them to President
Wilson, who told them that nothing
could be done for the moment" IN
ternational diplomacy was too in
volved. Yet some such clause was in
serted into the Rumanian constitu-
tion-and then overlooked for 10 years
in the practice under that constitu-
tion. The comments following that
disappointment as recorded in Clark's
Greater Roumania," are enlightening.
just at this time
"Roumania'S generous desires, en-
bodied in the law of June, 1919, were
too advanced for the conference The
British constitution forbade a Roman
Catholic to become sovereign or chief
justice. The French republic and the
Kingdom of Italy were not on cordial
terms with the Vatican. Every one
knows that Catholic, Jew or Moham-
medan could never be elected Presi-
dent of the United States. But what
definitely killed Roumania's enlightened
was clever move on the part
of the Japanese delegates. They saw
an opportunity to secure a pronounce
ment of equality of races, as a corollary
of the decree of religious tolerance; and
the American representatives, who had
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