Part 28

Article X. With regard to Dobrudja, which, according to Paragraph 1 of the peace preliminaries, is to be added by Rumania, the following stipulations are laid down: (A) Rumania cedes again to Bulgaria, with frontier rectifications, Bulgarian territory that fell to her by virtue of the peace treaty concluded at Bucharest in 1913. (Attached is a map showing the exact extent of the frontier rectification, with a note to the effect that it forms an essential part of the peace treaty.) A commission composed of representatives of the allied powers shall shortly after the signature of the treaty lay down and demarkate on the spot the new frontier line in Dobrudja. The Danube frontier between the regions ceded to Bulgaria and Rumania follows the river valley. Directly after the signature of the treaty further particulars shall be decided upon regarding the definition of the valley. Thus the demarkation shall take place in Autumn, 1918, at low water level.

(B) Rumania cedes to the allied powers that portion of Dobrudja up to the Danube north of the new frontier line described under Section A; that is to say, between the confluence of the stream and the Black Sea, to the St. George branch of the river. The Danube frontier between the territory ceded to the allied powers and Rumania will be formed by the river valley. The allied powers and Rumania will undertake to see that Rumania shall receive an assured trade route to the Black Sea, by way of Tchernavoda and Constanza, (Kustendje.)

Article XI. says that Rumania agrees that her frontier shall undergo rectification in favor of Austria-Hungary as indicated on the map, and continues:

"Two mixed commissions, to be composed of equal numbers of representatives of the powers concerned, are immediately after the ratification of the peace treaty to fix a new frontier line on the spot."

Article XII. Property in the ceded regions of Rumania passes without indemnification to the States which acquire these regions. Those States to which the ceded territories fall shall make agreements with Rumania on the following points: First, with regard to the allegiance of the Rumanian inhabitants of these regions and the manner in which they are to be accorded the right of option; secondly, with regard to the property of communes split by the new frontier; thirdly and fourthly, with regard to administrative and juridical matters; fifthly, with regard to the effect of the changes of territory on dioceses.

Clause 4 deals with war indemnities, of which Article XIII. declares that the contracting parties mutually renounce indemnification of their war costs, and special arrangements are to be made for the settlement of damages caused by the war.

The fifth clause relates to the evacuation of occupied territories, embodied in Articles XIV. to XXIV., summed up as follows:

"The occupied Rumanian territories shall be evacuated at times to be later agreed upon. The strength of the army of occupation shall, apart from the formation employed in economic functions, not surpass six divisions. Until the ratification of the treaty the present occupation administration continues, but immediately after the signature of the treaty the Rumanian Government has the power to supplement the corps of officials by such appointments or dismissals as may seem good to it."

Up to the time of evacuation, a civil official of the occupation administration shall always be attached to the Rumanian Ministry in order to facilitate so far as possible the transfer of the civil administration to the Rumanian authorities. The Rumanian authorities must follow the directions which the commanders of the army of occupation consider requisite in the interest of the security of the occupied territory, as well as the security, maintenance, and distribution of their troops.

For the present, railways, posts, and telegraphs will remain under military administration, and will, in accordance with proper agreements, be at the disposal of the authorities and population. As a general rule, the Rumanian courts will resume jurisdiction in the occupied territories to their full extent. The allied powers will retain jurisdiction, as well as the power of police supervision, over those belonging to the army of occupation. Punishable acts against the army of occupation will be judged by its military tribunals, and also offenses against the orders of the occupation administration. Persons can only return to the occupied territories in proportion as the Rumanian Government provides for their security and maintenance.

The army of occupation's right to requisition is restricted to wheat, peas, beans, fodder, wool, cattle, and meat from the products of 1918, and, further, to timber, oil and oil products, always observing proper regard for an orderly plan of procuring these commodities, as well as satisfying the home needs of Rumania.

From the ratification of the treaty onward the army of occupation shall be maintained at the expense of Rumania. A separate agreement will be made with regard to the details of the transfer of the civil administration, as well as with regard to the withdrawal of the regulations of the occupation administration. Money spent by the allied powers in the occupied territories on public works, including industrial undertakings, shall be made good on their transfer. Until the evacuation these undertakings shall remain under the military administration.

Clause 6.--_Regulations regarding navigation on the Danube._

Article XXIV. Rumania shall conclude a new Danube Navigation act with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, regulating the legal position on the Danube from the point where it becomes navigable, with due regard for the prescriptions subsequently set forth under Sections A to D, and on conditions that the prescriptions under Section B shall apply equally for all parties to the Danube act. Negotiations regarding the new Danube Navigation act shall begin at Munich as soon as possible after the ratification of the treaty.

The sections follow: (A) Under the name Danube Mouth Commission, the European Danube Commission shall, under conditions subsequently set forth, be maintained as a permanent institution, empowered with the privileges and obligations hitherto appertaining to it for the river from Braila downward, inclusive of this port. The conditions referred to provide, among other things, that the commission shall henceforth only comprise representatives of States situated on the Danube or the European coasts of the Black Sea. The commission's authority extends from Braila downward to the whole of the arms and mouth of the Danube and adjoining parts of the Black Sea.

(B.) Rumania guarantees to the ships of the other contracting parties free navigation on the Rumanian Danube, including the harbors. Rumania shall levy no toll on ships or rafts of the contracting parties and their cargoes merely for the navigation of the river. Neither shall Rumania, in the future, levy on the river any tolls, save those permitted by the new Danube Navigation act.

Section C provides for the abolition after the ratification of the treaty of the Rumanian ad valorem duty of 1-1/2 per cent. on imports and exports.

Articles XXV. and XXVI. deal with Danube questions and provide that Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Rumania are entitled to maintain warships on the Danube, which may navigate down stream to the sea and up stream as far as the upper frontier of Austria's territory, but are forbidden intercourse with the shore of another State or to put in there except under force majeure or with the consent of the State.

The powers represented on the Danube Mouth Commission are entitled to maintain two light warships each as guard ships at the mouth of the Danube.

Article XXVII. provides equal rights for all religious denominations, including Jews and Moslems, in Rumania, including the right to establish private schools.

Article XXVIII. provides that diversity of religion does not affect legal, political, or civil rights of the inhabitants, and, pending ratification of the treaty, a decree will be proclaimed giving the full rights of Rumanian subjects to all those, such as Jews, having no nationality.

The remaining three articles provide that economic relations shall be regulated by separate treaties, coming into operation at the same time as the peace treaty. The same applies to the exchange of prisoners.

THE KAISER EXULTS

Emperor William replied to Chancellor von Hertling's congratulations on the conclusion of peace between Germany and Rumania with this message:

The termination of the state of war in the east fills me also with proud joy and gratitude. Thanks to God's gracious help, the German people, with never-failing patriotism, under brilliant military leadership and with the assistance of strong diplomacy, are fighting step by step for a happy future.

I can but convey my thanks on this occasion to you and also to your collaborators. God will help us to pass through the struggle which the hostile attitude of the powers, still under arms against us, has forced us to continue and to conclude it victoriously for the good of Germany and her allies.

Emperor William in a telegram to Dr. Richard von Kühlmann, the German Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said:

The conclusion of peace with Rumania gives me an opportunity of expressing my joyful satisfaction that peace has now been given to the entire eastern front.

May rich blessings descend on the peoples concerned from the resumption of peaceful labor to which they can now devote themselves.

I thank you and your collaborators for the work done in loyal co-operation with our allies, and I confer on you as a sign of my appreciation the Order of the Royal Crown of the First Class.

Bessarabia Voluntarily United to Rumania

Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, during the negotiations with Rumania explained in a public speech that Rumania would be compensated for the loss of territory on the Transylvanian border by taking the southern part of Bessarabia, the Russian province bordering Rumania on the east. The southern part of Bessarabia, however, has few Rumanians, while the northern part is largely populated by them. Subsequent events have apparently changed the Austro-German plans, for the whole of Bessarabia has voted almost unanimously for union with Rumania. The event was officially announced at Washington on April 22 through the Rumanian Charge d'Affaires, N. H. Lahovary, as follows:

On April 9 the National Assembly of Bessarabia voted by 86 against 3 for union of Bessarabia to Rumania. The Rumanian Premier was then at Kishinev (capital of Bessarabia) and took cognizance of the vote amid enthusiastic acclamation and declared this union to be definitive and indissoluble.

Bessarabian delegates went to Jassy on April 12 to present the homage of the people of Bessarabia to their Majesties the King and Queen of Rumania. A Te Deum was sung at the cathedral in the presence of the royal family, the Government, and the Bessarabian delegates. The Archbishop of Bessarabia was also there, having taken the place next to the Metropolitan of Moldavia, who celebrated the service.

After the ceremony was over a parade of the troops took place, followed by a luncheon given at the royal palace in honor of the Ministers of Bessarabia. His Majesty the King drank to the health of the united Rumanian and Bessarabian people, after witnessing the great historic event accomplished by the will of the people of Bessarabia and proclaiming indissoluble the union of the ancient province of the Moldavian crown to the mother country.

Bessarabia, according to Mr. Lahovary, has about 3,000,000 inhabitants, and more than three-fourths of these are Rumanians. "Bessarabia," he continued, "is one of the richest farm lands of what was formerly Russia. The Bolsheviki ravaged it frightfully during the Winter months, and the country was only saved by the Rumanian troops, who were called in by the Bessarabians. Because of this help the Bolsheviki declared war on Rumania, and there were violent clashes between the Bolshevist brigands and Rumanian troops. Finally the latter ousted the Bolsheviki and succeeded in restoring tranquillity, but only after the Bolsheviki had committed most frightful outrages and pillaged the country. If Rumania was obliged to make peace, it was due directly to the attitude of the Bolsheviki toward Rumania."

The War and the Bagdad Railway

A Study by Dr. Morris Jastrow

_Professor of Semitic Languages in the University of Pennsylvania_

[From his book, "The War and the Bagdad Railway"]

_Germany's project of a railway from Berlin to Bagdad, now rivaled by a new one from Berlin to Bombay via Russia, was one of the chief causes of the war. It dates from 1888, when a syndicate of German and British capital organized the Anatolian Railway, to be built from Haidar Pacha, opposite Constantinople, to Angora--about 360 miles. The German members later bought out the British interests. Further concessions were obtained, but in 1898 a much more ambitious plan was brought forward by the visit of the German Emperor to Sultan Abdul Hamid, and in 1899 the general policy of a line across Asia Minor was announced. This line, however, as a glance at the map will show, did not get beyond Angora; Russia killed that phase of the project. The Bagdad Railway was then organized in 1903, and obtained from Turkey an unprecedented concession running southeastward to the Persian Gulf. Both England and France were offered a minor share in the enterprise, but refused. The Germans thus remained in full control, at the same time obtaining all the French capital they needed through Swiss banks._

The Bagdad Railway has been a nightmare resting heavily on all Europe for eighteen years--ever since the announcement in 1899 of the concession granted to the Anatolian Railway Company. No step ever taken by any European power anywhere has caused so much trouble, given rise to so many complications, and has been such a constant menace to the peace of the world. No European statesman to whom the destinies of his country have been committed has rested easily in the presence of this spectre of the twentieth century. In the last analysis the Bagdad Railway will be found to be the largest single contributing factor in bringing on the war, because through it more than through any other cause the mutual distrust among European powers has been nurtured until the entire atmosphere of international diplomacy became vitiated. The explanation of this remarkable phenomenon, transforming what appeared on the surface to be a magnificent commercial enterprise, with untold possibilities for usefulness, into a veritable curse, an excrescence on the body politic of Europe, is to be sought in the history of the highway through which the railway passes. The control of this highway is the key to the East--the Near and the Farther East as well. Such has been its rôle in the past--such is its significance today. * * *

The most recent events are merely the repetition on a large scale of such as took place thousands of years ago and at frequent intervals since. The weapons have changed, new contestants have arisen to take the place of civilizations that after serving their day faded out of sight, but the issue has ever remained the same. We are confronted by that issue today--the control of the highway that leads to the East. * * * The decisive battlefields for the triumph of democracy are in the West, but the decision for supremacy among European nations lies in the East. The Bagdad Railway is the most recent act in a drama the beginnings of which lie in the remote past. * * *

The course of events in the Near East since the entering wedge, represented by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, is to be interpreted as the irresistible onslaught of the West to break down the barrier created in 1453. As we survey the successive steps in this onslaught, the struggle between France and England, culminating in the Convention of 1904, which gave France a dominant position in Morocco in return for allowing England a free hand in Egypt, the attempts of France and Russia to hedge in England in India, followed by England and Russia in dividing up their "spheres of influence" in Persia, the commercial and railway concessions secured by England, France, and Russia from Turkey, sinking ever deeper into a slough of desperate weakness, we see how these struggles, conventions, and partnerships all lead up to the dramatic climax--the struggle for the historic highway which is the key to the Near East. Its possession will mean in the future--as it always has in the past--dominion over Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and probably Arabia; and the Near East points its finger directly toward the Farther East. Under the modern symbol of railway control, Asia Minor, true to the genius of its history, once more looms up as a momentous factor in the world history. * * * The murder at Serajevo was merely the match applied to the pile all ready to be kindled. * * *

Full credit should be given to the German brains in which this project was hatched, and there is no reason to suspect that at the outset the German capitalists who fathered the enterprise were actuated by any other motive than the perfectly legitimate one to create a great avenue of commerce. When, however, the German Government entered the field as the backer and promoter of the scheme the political aspect of the railroad was moved into the foreground, and that aspect has since overshadowed the commercial one.

Had the original plan of the German group to run the Bagdad Railway across Northern Asia Minor from Angora been adhered to, the interior would have been kept free, and it is likely that a favorite English plan (afterward taken up also by the French Government) to run a railway from the Gulf of Alexandretta via Aleppo and the Euphrates to Bagdad might have been carried out. * * * The railway projects of Asia Minor and Syria might have remained purely commercial undertakings of great cultural value. The political aspect of railway plans in the Near East might have been permanently kept in the background.

The stumbling block that prevented the execution of the original plan was--strangely enough--Russia. Her opposition to the northern route brought about the change. Russia had plans of her own in Asia Minor and in the lands to the east beyond. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century Russia, fearing the extension of English power in the Far East, cast her eyes about for securing zones of influence that might bring her into touch with the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. She secured the co-operation of France in 1891, and it is both interesting and instructive to note that the Franco-Russian alliance was originally directed against England rather than against Germany. * * * She exacted from Turkey the Black Sea Basin agreement, formally sanctioned in 1900, which reserved to her the right to construct railroads in Northern Asia Minor. * * * At all events, her opposition was strong enough to secure a modification of the plan of the Bagdad Railway in favor of the transverse route, which, as it turned out, gave Germany a tremendous advantage over all rivals, though it also brought on the opposition of England. Russia was not prepared to allow any further advantage to be gained in the East by England. On the whole she still preferred Germany.

[England's opposition to Germany's new railway scheme became acute when it was publicly announced that the road was not to terminate at Bagdad, or even at Basra, but to run on to a point "to be determined" on the Persian Gulf. The Convention of 1902-3 made it evident that Germany had stolen a march on England, and that the prestige of France, too, had suffered. The favor shown to the German syndicate by the Turkish Government was evident. The terms were indeed unprecedented. Says Dr. Jastrow: "No wonder that there were great rejoicings in Germany when they were announced and gnashing of teeth outside of Germany." With the announcement of the 1902-3 concession and the formation of the Bagdad Railway Company as a successor to the old Anatolian Company, the German syndicate did offer English and French capitalists a share in the enterprise, and insisted that the plan was "international." But the "share" thus offered was merely assistance in financing what would remain a German matter--inasmuch as Germany reserved the control in the management's personnel. England and France therefore refused to participate.]

LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM

Von Jagow's Replies to the Prince's Revelations--Further German Comments

The revelations by Prince Lichnowsky, German Ambassador in London at the outbreak of the war, which were printed in the May number of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, produced a profound impression throughout the world, disclosing as they did the part played by the German Imperial Government in starting the war. German officialdom at once attacked Lichnowsky, compelling him to resign his rank and threatening him with trial for treason. On April 27, 1918, the Prussian upper house decided to grant the request of the First State Attorney of District Court No. 1 of Berlin for authorization to undertake criminal proceedings against Prince Lichnowsky. The State Attorney held that Prince Lichnowsky, in communicating to third parties documents or their contents officially intrusted to him by his superiors had infringed the secrecy incumbent on him.

In referring to the prosecution of the Prince, Maximilian Harden, in a May issue of the Zukunft, said:

"I will swear that there are dozens of men sitting there in these dark war hours who have written and said similar things in sharper and more bitter words." Herr Harden asked whether these would meet the same fate if their papers were stolen and exposed in German shop windows. "Many a trusted wife," he said, "must cry out in fear: 'But, you know, Ernst, Adolf, and Klaus have spoken more desperately.'"