"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.