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. * * *