Part 25

The Supreme War Council is confident of the ultimate result, and the allied peoples are resolute not to sacrifice a single one of the free nations of the world to the despotism of Berlin. Their armies are displaying the same steadfast courage which has enabled them on many previous occasions to defeat a German onset. They have only to endure with faith and patience to the end to make victory for freedom secure. The free peoples and their magnificent soldiers will save civilization.

A supplemental official statement announced that the following declarations had been unanimously agreed to by the Premiers of the three nations:

The creation of a united, independent Polish State, with free access to the sea, constitutes one of the conditions of a solid and just peace and the rule of right in Europe.

The Allies have noted with satisfaction the declaration of the American Secretary of State, to which they adhere, expressing the greatest sympathy with the national aspirations of the Czechs and Jugoslavs for freedom.

AMERICA AND JUGOSLAVS

The American declaration referred to above was made public by Secretary Lansing on May 29 in these words:

The Secretary of State desires to announce that the proceedings of the Congress of Oppressed Races of Austria-Hungary, which was held in Rome in April, have been followed with great interest by the Government of the United States, and that the nationalistic aspirations of the Czecho-Slovacs and the Jugoslavs for freedom have the earnest sympathy of this Government.

Secretary Lansing's declaration was greeted with enthusiasm by Jugoslavs in both Europe and America. Premier Pashitch of Serbia a few days later communicated to the American Chargé d'Affaires at Corfu his profound appreciation of the action of the United States. Another result was a formal offer of military service by Jugoslavs residing in this country. The offer was made to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on June 5 by Don Niko Grskovich and John J. Grgurevich, acting as spokesmen for their fellow-Slavs. They explained that the Slovenians, Croats, and other South Slavs in the United States were intensely hostile to the German-Austrian cause, and were eager to cast their lot with the Allies, but because they were technically subjects of the Austrian Crown they occupied the status of enemy aliens and were unable to join the army.

"If Congress will enact a law taking this stigma from our people 50,000 enlistments in the American Army will be the immediate result," Mr. Grskovich told the committee. "Ultimately, nearly 500,000 of our people will be found fighting under the American flag."

Rumania's Thralldom

Subjection of the Nation to German Tyranny Under a Supplementary Economic Treaty

CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE for June contained the text of the main treaty imposed on Rumania by Germany, known as the Peace of Bucharest. On May 10 it was announced that a "legal and political supplementary agreement" had been exacted, which completed the economic subjection of the country. The main clauses of this treaty follow:

CLAUSE I.--This provides for the resumption of Consular relations and the admission of Consuls. The treaty demands that a further Consular treaty shall be concluded as soon as possible, and stipulates for the indemnification of all damage suffered during the war by Consular officials or done to Consular buildings.

CLAUSE II.--This clause says that Rumania renounces indemnifications and damages caused on Rumanian territory as the result of German military measures, including all requisitions and contributions. Amounts which Germany has already paid for damages of the nature just described will be refunded by Rumania in so far as these have not been refunded from the country's means, or paid in the newly issued notes of the Banca Generale of Rumania, (note issue department.)

Within six months after the ratification of

Until redemption, the notes of the Banca Generate shall be recognized as legal tender. After the ratification of the peace treaty such notes shall no longer be issued.

Another article, under the same clause, provides that Rumania shall indemnify the Germans for all damages suffered by them on Rumanian territory as the result of the military measures of one of the belligerent powers. This stipulation also applies to the losses which the Germans have suffered as participants, and especially as shareholders, of undertakings situated in Rumanian territory. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty a commission shall meet in Bucharest to fix the amount of such losses. The contracting parties will each appoint a third of the members, and the President of the Swiss Federal Council will be asked to designate neutral personages to make up the other third, which is to include the Chairman.

Rumania will also indemnify neutral nations for damage which has been caused them on Rumanian territory as a result of German military measures, and which must be made good according to the principles of international law.

CLAUSE III.--This clause stipulates for the restoration of treaties and agreements between the contracting parties which were in force before the war, except for those cases in which the peace treaty provides otherwise, and in cases where such instruments are undenouncable for a certain period. This period is prolonged by the period of the duration of the war.

The contracting parties reserve until after the conclusion of a general peace the fixing of their attitude toward separate and collective treaties of a political character.

CLAUSE IV.--This contains prescriptions governing the restoration of ordinary relations between debtor and creditor. It says, too, that each contracting party will, immediately after the ratification of the treaty, resume the payment of its obligations, particularly the public debt service, to subjects of the other party.

Restoration and compensation for concessions and privileges in land and other rights are also dealt with.

CLAUSE V.--This deals with compensation for damage suffered during or immediately before the outbreak of war by civilian subjects of the respective parties in life, health, liberties, or property through acts contrary to international law.

Germans who were in the Rumanian public service before the war, and who were dismissed as enemy foreigners, shall, on their request, be restored to equal rank and equal salary, or, if this is impracticable, they shall be given fair compensation.

CLAUSE VI.--This clause says that the respective prisoners of war shall be sent home in so far as they, with the assent of the State concerned, do not desire to remain in its territory or to proceed to another country. The exchange of prisoners is to follow as soon as possible, at definite times to be further agreed upon.

The expenditure of each party for prisoners of war belonging to the other party up to April 1, 1918, will be calculated on the basis of an average rate of 2,000 marks (£100) for each officer in Germany, and 1,000 for all other prisoners in Germany, and 2,500 (£100) and 1,250 lei respectively for prisoners in Rumania. Immediately on the ratification of the treaty a commission composed of three members of each party is to meet in Bucharest to arrange details and to supervise the carrying out of the agreement.

Interned civilians will also be gratuitously sent home as soon as possible, in so far as they do not wish to remain in the country of their internment or go elsewhere.

CLAUSE VII.--This relates to the right of subjects of the contracting parties to return to the country of their origin without suffering prejudice.

CLAUSE VIII.--This stipulates an amnesty for offenses committed by prisoners of war, interned men, and certain others. It incidentally stipulates that Rumania shall grant an amnesty to its subjects for their political conduct or military conduct based upon political grounds during the war.

CLAUSE IX.--This provides that captured river craft, merchant ships, and cargoes shall be returned, or, if no longer in existence, be paid for, and compensation shall also be paid for the period they were in the captor's possession. Here, too, a commission will be appointed.

CLAUSE X.--This stipulates that various rights shall be accorded to German churches and schools in Rumania.

CLAUSE XI.--This says: "Rumania, after having obtained the assent of the Rumanian National Bank, agrees that the balances and deposits of the National Bank now at the German Reichsbank shall remain in the Reichsbank's charge for five years (and if Rumania falls behind with an installment, for ten years) as a security for Rumania's Public Debt Service, as regards the subjects of Germany; and may also, if necessary, be drawn on to pay interest and redeem drawn bonds."

The representatives of the contracting parties will meet in Berlin within four weeks after the signature of the treaty to make further arrangements regarding the fulfillment and further guaranteeing of Rumania's financial obligations.

CLAUSE XII.--This provides that the respective representatives shall meet in Berlin within four months after the ratification of this treaty, further to supplement it.

CONTROL OF OIL FIELDS

Under the petroleum agreement between the Central Powers and Rumania, the Central Powers' controlling company, the Oil Lands Leasing Company, is endowed with exclusive rights of the most far-reaching character for thirty years, with the right of prolongation for two subsequent periods of thirty years, making ninety in all.

Up to one-quarter of the foundation shares will be offered to the Rumanian Government with the right of transfer to private interests, but Germany and Austria-Hungary insure their control by the creation of preference shares with a fifty-fold voting right, and these shares are exclusively at their disposal.

A State trading monopoly in oil in Rumania is also provided for, the exercise of the monopoly to be intrusted to a company that is to be formed by a financial group designated by the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments.

All kinds of privileges are stipulated for the Oil Lands Leasing Company, the position of which is most carefully hedged around.

The parties are agreed by the terms of Article IV. of the foregoing agreement that immediately after the ratification of the peace treaty the Rumanian Government will enter into negotiations with the Governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary regarding the manner in which Rumania's surplus oil and oil products can be placed at the disposal of Germany and Austria-Hungary without endangering the vital interests of Rumania in respect of the country's industries and its own needs. The provisions of Article IV., therefore, only enter into force should no other understanding have been arrived at before Dec. 1, 1918.

COST OF RUMANIA'S PEACE

A correspondent who was at Jassy for years and left there only a few days before the peace treaty was signed thus writes of Rumania's hard fate:

"What is the balance sheet of Rumania after eighteen months' hard struggle? Before August, 1916, she had absolute economic freedom and could sell her harvests to any one she pleased at any price she wanted. In 1915 and 1916 the Rumanian exporters sold wheat to Germany and Austria at from 10s. to 12s. a bushel. The Austro-German importers had to pay, besides, a heavy export tax in gold to the Rumanian Government. Now Germany has secured for herself and her allies practically the whole Rumanian harvest for years to come, at a price which she is going to fix, and in such conditions that 'no diplomatic intervention should be necessary in the future for securing the grain necessary for the allied Central Powers.'

"Rumania had in Europe, after Russia, the richest oil fields and the greatest production of oil. The fields were in American, German, and English hands, but the Rumanian Government had full control of the production and drew very large benefits. When the war broke out in 1914 the Rumanian Government at once prohibited the export of petrol and heavy oils to Germany. The German companies tried hard to send the much-needed petrol to their countries, but succeeded in smuggling only a small quantity through at enormous cost. After a year the production of petrol increased so much that the Government was compelled to allow the export of a small quantity, asking Germany in exchange to agree that Rumania should receive a certain quantity of goods the export of which was prohibited in Germany. The Germans will not forget that they had to pay for the petrol at the rate of about $200 a ton."

GERMAN OIL MONOPOLY

"Since November, 1916, the Rumanian oil industry has been destroyed. In the last ten days before the Germans penetrated into the rich Prahova Valley the British mission under Lieut. Col. Norton Griffiths destroyed everything--wells, tanks, refineries were burned, smashed to pieces, or blown up, so that even now, after a year and a half, the Germans have not been able to reconstruct them. According to statements made by German prisoners in November last, none of obstructed wells had been put in order again. The German engineers have worked hard, boring new wells, but have not succeeded in getting more than 10 to 15 per cent. of the normal production. However, although the refineries and wells have been destroyed, the oil fields exist, and I think that not even 50 per cent. of them have yet been worked in Rumania. The Germans know this, and the clause in the peace treaty that they should have the control and monopoly of the oil fields for ninety-nine years will make them the real owners and entirely independent of the American market. These two assets--the corn and the oil--on which the whole wealth of the Rumanian Kingdom was based, are thus under direct German control."

"Furthermore, Rumania has suffered much during the war. Towns and villages have been destroyed, and nearly the entire stock of railway carriages, vans, and locomotives has been lost. The productive capacity of the country has been enormously diminished. About 60 per cent. of the horned cattle and more than 70 per cent. of the horses have gone. Famine and disease have made ravages among the rural population, nobody having paid any attention to them. I have seen villages of 300 to 500 inhabitants reduced to 40. All the rest died from spotted typhus or other scourges. This shows how reduced are the means of national recovery after peace is signed. The financial situation is probably worse than the economic. At the outbreak of the war the budget amounted to 500,000,000 lei, ($100,000,000,) while the national debt was about 1,500,000,000 lei, ($300,000,000.) A few weeks before I left Jassy the Minister of Finance told me that the debt had increased to about $1,250,000,000. In the period from August, 1916, to February, 1918, the revenue had been very greatly reduced. As the military situation was always critical and the Government had decided twice, before the Russian disaster, to move to Russia, everybody who had a little money kept it at home and did not invest it in Government securities. Therefore only a small amount had been raised in Rumania by loans; the greatest part of the money had to be obtained from abroad, mainly from England, but also from France and the United States, at a rate of 4 to 5 per cent. Thus the interest which Rumania had to pay on her national debt represented about $62,500,000, or more than three-quarters of her budget in the pre-war days."

VON KUEHLMANN'S EXPLANATION

Dr. von Kühlmann, the German Foreign Secretary, who forced the treaty, in an address before the Berlin Chamber of Commerce May 24, explained the advantages which the peace of Bucharest had brought to Germany. He said:

Two points must be taken into consideration: First, guaranteeing Rumanian agricultural and petroleum production as urgently necessary for the carrying on of the war by the Central Powers and for the transition period; and, secondly, the important rôle which Rumania has to fill in providing a thoroughfare to the East, especially as she dominates the lower course of the Danube.

It is here that there comes into effect the International Danube Delta Committee, upon which only States on the banks of the Danube can be represented. Only if the States agree to it will the countries lying on the Black Sea be able to come into it. Therefore, it is especially important for the German seaboard traffic that we have been able to secure sites for dockyards.

Along with the Danube, the importance of the Rumanian railways must be considered, especially the Bucharest-Czernavoda-Constanza line, over which Germany must have control. It has been agreed with Bulgaria that this railway to Constanza, which is to be made a free port with grain silos and petroleum tanks, is to be leased to a German company for ninety-nine years.

The cable between Constantinople and Constanza played an important rôle before the war. This cable is to be developed to the utmost and secured from enemy control.

Alluding to the agreement by which Germany had secured the Rumanian harvest of 1918-19, and the far-reaching option upon the entire Rumanian harvest for the next seven years, Dr. von Kühlmann said:

One can look forward to the whole food question with a certain amount of confidence. * * * Formal war indemnities were not demanded by Germany, but the numerous privileges we secured are equivalent, in the opinion of experts, to anything which would have been yielded by indemnities. When, some day, the damage caused by the U-boat warfare shall have been made good by newly-built ships, the sea route from Constanza will regain its importance. Whether traffic on the Danube will be able to compete with it is a question of the distant future. For the present we shall have to rely on the Danube.

MODEL PEACE TERMS

Discussing this treaty on June 1, the Nachrichten of Munich declared:

The peace concluded with Rumania should serve as a model for the general peace terms to be concluded by the Central Powers. Germany has found a method of making conquered countries share her enormous war burdens without actually inflicting a crushing war indemnity. This method consists in enforcing on them a stipulation for preferential treatment to be accorded to Germany over a long period, so that Germany may be fully supplied with goods she needs. In this way Rumania will furnish the Central Powers with wheat and petroleum on advantageous terms for ninety years. A similar happy solution must also be adopted in all peace treaties to be conducted in the future.

ARMENIA'S SUFFERINGS IN A NEW PHASE

Turkish Invasion of the Caucasus Under the Brest Treaty--Struggle of the Georgians

By the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty the Bolshevist Government of Russia gave up to Turkey the districts of Batum, Kars, and Erivan, comprising the southwestern portion of the Caucasus, between the Black and Caspian Seas. This region includes the Russian part of the former Kingdom of Armenia, with Turkish Armenia adjoining it on the south. It is inhabited largely by Armenians and by that other ancient people, the Georgians, between whom and the Turks there has been an age-long and deadly feud. Hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees from Turkish persecution in Asia Minor had taken refuge here under the Russian flag in the last three years, especially after the first Petrograd revolution gave promise of liberty under a republic. Now Georgians and Armenians alike find themselves betrayed into the hands of their Turkish enemies.

Soon after the signing of the treaty on March 3, 1918, the Turks sent armed forces to take possession of the three districts named. They met with resistance both from the Armenians and from the Georgians, but neither of the betrayed nationalities had an army competent to cope with the enemy. The result was a new reign of terror, similar to that of the massacres in Turkish Armenia, and the world was horrified anew by the atrocities that ensued.

PROTEST OF ARMENIANS

The Armenian National Council on April 14 addressed the following protest to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the President of the Reichstag:

The Armenian National Council, as the supreme body for the expression of the will of the Armenian people, is addressing you in connection with the tragic state of things in Armenia. Armenia is flooded with blood and, only recently saved from centuries of slavery, is again condemned to fresh sufferings. Following upon the withdrawal of the Russian troops, Turkish troops have already invaded the undefended country and are not only killing every Turkish Armenian but also every Russian in Armenia.

In spite of the terms of the peace treaty, which recognizes the right of self-determination for these Caucasian regions, the Turkish Army is advancing toward Kars and Ardahan, destroying the country and killing the Christian population. The responsibility for the future destiny of the Armenians lies entirely with Germany, because it was Germany's insistence that resulted in the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the Armenian regions, and at the moment it rests with Germany to prevent the habitual excesses of the Turkish troops, increased by revengefulness and anger.

It is hard to believe that a civilized State like Germany, which has the means for preventing the excesses of her ally, will permit the Brest-Litovsk treaty to be used by the German people, who have been involved in war against their own will, as a means for the creation of incalculable sufferings.

The National Council firmly believes that you will undertake the necessary measures, which depend solely upon you, to influence the Turkish authorities with a view to saving the Armenian people from fresh horrors.

POLICY OF ANNIHILATION

To this protest the Bolshevist Government of Russia added the following:

The offensive of the Turkish troops and detachments on the Caucasian front has been followed by the murder of the whole Armenian population. The peaceful population of women and children have been killed without mercy and their property has been plundered and burned.

The peace treaty, which we were forced to sign at Brest-Litovsk, left the determination of the future destiny of the people of the provinces of Ardahan, Kars, and Batum to themselves. The events which have taken place in these provinces testify that the old policy of the annihilation of the Armenian people is still to be applied.