1942: Rumania

Rumania, aligned with the Axis and completely under German control, lived in 1942 through a year of great strain in domestic and in foreign affairs. King Mihail is a pure figurehead, all power is in the hands of Marshal Ion Antonescu, who is Prime Minister and at the same time bears the title Conducator, the Rumanian equivalent of Fuehrer or Duce. In spite of the fact that the war against Russia on the side of Germany had brought to Rumania not only the reconquest of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina — territories which Rumania had been forced to cede to Russia in 1940 — but even beyond her old frontiers the conquest of territory between the Dniester and Bug rivers with the important port of Odessa as the capital, the war against Russia was felt more and more as a tremendous burden upon the resources of the country. The Rumanians had believed, as the Germans had promised them, that the defeat of Russia would be easy and that the war would be over in a few months. They were in no way prepared for the bitter resistance of the Soviet army and for the very great sacrifices which two winter campaigns in Russia would exact. The number of Rumanian casualties was very great, especially in view of the fact that the German high command used the Rumanian army frequently for tasks which were especially costly in life. Rumanian troops had a great share in the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimea and later in the difficult operations on the lower Don and in the Caucasian Mountains. Confidence in an easy victory, and finally in a German victory at all, began to wane, and it was reported from reliable sources that many Rumanian officers opposed Rumania's participation in a war which brought with it complete subservience of the country to Germany and to her military and economic needs.

Internal Affairs.

The war-weariness of the Rumanian population was increased by the difficult internal situation. In spite of the fact that Rumania is one of the most fertile countries of Europe, prices for food stuff and for all goods have risen to astronomical figures, so that Rumania, where the income of the average citizen is extremely low, has become one of the most expensive countries in Europe. Goods and food are not only expensive, but they can be obtained only with greatest difficulty. Their scarcity is to be explained not only by decrease in production but also by the great obstacles in the way of transportation and by the growing need of the army which is fighting hundreds of miles away. The government was unable to maintain stability of prices; meat, sugar, flour, bread and edible oil have been rationed; Rumania has five meatless days a week, and during the great cold in the winter the houses could not be heated, as the result of transportation difficulties.

The large majority of the population accepts the situation with apathy, but there is also much active opposition, partly from extremist youth which can not forget that Marshal Antonescu turned against the Iron Guard in 1941 and that many of its foremost leaders were killed or exiled. On the other hand, many members of Rumanian high society were sent to concentration camps for 'leading a dissolute life of pleasure at a time when the Rumanian army is fighting for justice and honor and a united country is making sacrifices.' Wide-spread unrest led to the arrest of a great number of persons who protested against the anti-British and anti-American policy of Marshal Antonescu which they regarded as a danger for Rumania's future. Thus the external and internal situation combined to keep the country from any internal cooperation. Germany's demands for additional divisions for the Russian front aggravated the situation. The Rumanian army was completely coordinated with the German army, and German officers and experts went to Rumania to convert the Rumanian army into an integral part of the German army. Marshal Antonescu visited Hitler's headquarters in February and conferred with him and other high ranking German officials on questions of closer political, economic and military collaboration. German economic experts tried to reorganize Rumanian economic life and industry in view of the growing demands of war production.

Tension with Hungary.

The situation in Rumania was further aggravated by the growing tension with Hungary. In 1940 Rumania had been forced by the Axis to cede the northern part of Transylvania to Hungary. Yet among the territories acquired after the first World War there was none dearer to the Rumanians than Transylvania. They regarded this land with its majority of Rumanian inhabitants who before 1918 had lived under Hungarian domination, as the birth place of the Rumanian national renaissance. In many ways Transylvania had been the most progressive part of Rumania and the Transylvanian peasants had formed the backbone of whatever existed of Rumanian democracy. Thus it is understandable that while Rumania tried to reach cordial relations with Bulgaria in spite of the loss of the southern Dobruja to that country in 1940, no cordial relations could be established with Hungary. There had remained a large Rumanian population in the part of Transylvania ceded to Hungary. The Rumanians complained that this population was oppressed by the Hungarians, and the Hungarians retorted by similar accusations concerning the Hungarian minority in southern Transylvania under Rumanian rule. The Rumanian government had hoped that the reconquest of Bessarabia and the conquest of other lands to the east might reconciliate the Rumanians to the loss of Transylvania. But the Rumanian youth and leading Rumanian statesmen like Julius Maniu, the leader of the democratic peasant party in Transylvania, reminded the Rumanians always so much of their loss, that the government had to take this into account. The resolve of the Rumanian people not to abandon Transylvania to Hungary found its expression in the speech which the Vice Premier and Acting Foreign Minister of Rumania Mihail Antonescu delivered on March 19 in Bucharest. 'During the last year,' he said, 'we have been the victims of grave offenses and provocations that wounded not only our sentiments as Rumanian citizens, but also our pride as Europeans. Northern Transylvania, cradle of our country, was submitted to a régime of oppression and humiliation. Its population has been jeered and tortured, its churches destroyed, the land which they received as a result of the policy of social justice followed by Rumania, was taken away from the peasants.' He assured the Rumanians in Transylvania of all sympathy and declared that their sufferings could no longer go on. Rumania had shown restraint, because the countries were involved in a dangerous struggle with Russia. The Hungarian government showed great concern, as did Germany over the threat of an open split between the two Axis satellites. It was only with great effort that Rumania could be persuaded to postpone the issue for the time being and to leave its settlement until after the war. Yet the incident shows clearly that in the 'new order' imposed by the Axis powers, the difficult problems of Central Europe have in no way been solved and that the latent conflicts were prevented from breaking out into the open only by German threats.

1941: Rumania

Iron Guard Revolt.

Rumania was not only involved in 1941 in all the great military developments staged by the Germans in the Balkan Peninsula and in Russia, but also continued to seethe with internal discontent and disorder. At the beginning of the year the country was the scene of a violent outburst of revolt organized by the extremist Fascist Rumanian group, the Iron Guard. In September 1940 the Iron Guard had forced the abdication of King Carol and the complete adhesion of Rumania to the Axis. The government which followed represented a coalition between the Iron Guard and certain reactionary elements of the army under the leadership of General Ion Antonescu, who became the prime minister and 'Führer' of Rumania. The country was proclaimed a 'national legionary state,' from the fact that the name of the Iron Guard was 'Legion of the Archangel Michael.' In the second half of January Iron Guardists revolted against their own government, alarmed by the fact that Germany had forced Rumania to cede a large part of Transylvania to Hungary. They clung as much to their Fascist idea as to the idea of the Rumanian nation, and they accused General Antonescu of selling out Rumania to the Germans. Many of the leading men of the régime, high officers and officials, supported the revolt, among them the vice-premier Horia Sima, the head of the Iron Guard, and Gen. George Petrovicescu, the minister of the interior.

The revolt lasted for several days, before it could be put down by General Antonescu's troops. Street fighting occurred with the greatest violence; the number of dead amounted into the thousands; great material damage was done, and with special savagery many Jews were butchered and their quarters pillaged. It was only at the end of January that General Antonescu restored a semblance of order and formed a new cabinet, mostly consisting of generals and high officers, without any representatives of the Rumanian parties. Although the Iron Guard, to which the majority of the nationalistic youth belong, was forbidden and driven underground, the discontent continued and was increased by the sharply rising prices, by the scarcity of food which was all carried away to Germany, and by the complete dislocation of the entire economic life. All the leading industries of the country were requisitioned by the army and put under its control. The new government, in which General Antonescu was also foreign minister, followed an even more outspoken pro-German policy, turning Rumania, politically, militarily and economically into a German vassal state.

German Troops Based in Rumania.

Meanwhile German troops occupied Rumania in ever-growing numbers, and it became obvious that Rumania was destined to become the principal base for further German advances into the Balkans. As a result of this situation the British decided, on Feb. 10, to break off diplomatic relations with Rumania, because 'Rumanian territory is being used by Germany as a military base in furtherance of her plans for prosecuting the war and because these measures are being taken without a word of dissent from the Rumanian government.' While Rumania became more and more deeply attached to Germany, some leading Rumanians in London and Washington decided to form a Free Rumania movement at the head of which was Viorel Virgil Tilea, former Rumanian minister to London, who declared that most of his countrymen favored a British victory. But the Rumanian government in Bucharest meanwhile took a number of steps tying Rumania irrevocably to the Axis. It was the occupation of Rumania by German troops which allowed the Germans at the beginning of March to cross into Bulgaria and there establish a base for attack against Greece and Yugoslavia by the beginning of April. Rumanian troops even participated in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and occupied a small eastern part of the Banat which was in dispute between Hungary and Rumania. A reorganization of the Rumanian army was carried through, and, as a result of German pressure, Premier Antonescu tried to win some popular support for his régime after the elimination of the Iron Guard which had originally supported it. But the negotiations with Ion Mihalache, one of the leaders of the Nationalist Peasants, and George Bratianu, a leader of the former Liberal Party, did not bring any results, while a rapprochement between the government and Dr. Juliu Maniu, the popular leader of the democratic peasant forces, was out of the question. The month of June brought trials against the leaders of the Iron Guard revolt, but before they were entirely over, the sudden German invasion of the Soviet Union involved Rumania in a war of great dimensions.

Internal Disorder.

This entrance into the war in no way alleviated the internal situation of the country. The government of General Antonescu introduced the most drastic penalties for the expression of any discontent with the existing régime. There were no less than twenty 'crimes' made punishable by death, among them the drawing of anti-governmental cartoons or the singing of political songs. In a country normally abundant in food and in many ways a granary for other lands, the scarcity of the most necessary foodstuffs grew to such alarming proportions that the death penalty was imposed against those who illegally withheld food from the public or carried on illegal traffic in foodstuffs. General compulsory labor service was introduced except for married women, and the state was given the right of control over all occupations and vocations. When the war in Russia grew more and more costly and the privations increased with the number of the many victims on the battlefield, a wave of rioting, sabotage and bitter resistance swept Rumania at the end of October. Mass executions and the intensified persecution of Jews were powerless to stop the disorders. Even the army itself seemed to be reached by this spirit of disintegration. The lack of coal and fuel increased the misery with the approach of winter, while requisitioning by the German army stripped the country further and further of its food reserves. Under these circumstances Premier Antonescu ordered a national plebiscite on November 9, in which he referred to the great military successes of the Rumanians together with the German army in Russia and asked the Rumanian people to state whether they approved or disapproved of his régime. With the exception of Jews, who had lost the right to vote, all Rumanian citizens over 21 were obliged to participate in the referendum which allowed only the answers of yes and no. No kind of propaganda, speeches or leaflets was allowed before the referendum. In his proclamation General Antonescu said: 'Every day and every hour I have endeavored to protect the destiny of the nation by linking it to the Axis powers. Thanks to loyal and generous understanding of the great Führer, Adolf Hitler, and of Il Duce, I have secured the road leading to the nation's resurrection. The crusade opened by the great army of the Reich and the sacrifices of the German soldiers have enabled us to liberate the soil of our fathers. This we shall never forget. Only nations that are fighting uprightly will emerge in honor from the present struggle.'

Before the referendum voters were asked whether they wished to vote yes or no, and the corresponding bulletins were handed to them by the officials. Needless to say that the population unanimously demanded the right bulletins of vote. Thus strengthened by the expressed confidence of the nation, Premier Antonescu began to work out a new constitution for Rumania in line with the 'New Order,' and new national Jewish laws corresponding to the existing German legislation.

Russo-German War.

Meanwhile, beginning with June 22 the Rumanian armies had crossed the Soviet frontier in the wake of the German troops, chiefly with the intention of reconquering the lands ceded in 1940 to the Soviet Union. In his proclamation to the army, General Antonescu told them 'bring all Bessarabia and the woods of Bukovina back into the fatherland. You will fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart with the strongest military might on earth. Be worthy of the honor which history, the army of the great Reich, and its extraordinary leader, Adolf Hitler, have given you.' By July 26 the Rumanian armies had occupied all the territory of Bukovina and Bessarabia which had been ceded to the Soviet Union.

But the Rumanian army did not stop at the former frontiers of Rumania. It crossed the Dniester River and participated in the war for the control of the Ukraine and the port of Odessa. It was there that the Rumanian troops suffered the greatest losses. The government began to speak of the necessary strategical consolidation of its frontiers, by which it meant the annexation of territory outside the former Rumanian borders, for which the new name Transnistria was used. There seemed however much less enthusiasm in Rumania for these conquests than there would have been for the regaining of the part of Transylvania which had been lost to Hungary. The tension with Hungary grew during the fall of 1941, and had it not been for the German army, war between the two German satellites might have broken out. On Dec. 13, Rumania, as a satellite of Germany, notified the American minister at Bucharest that she considered herself at war with the United States. Thus at the end of 1941 Rumania found herself involved as an active participant in a great world conflict, while at the same time seriously weakened by internal disorders.

Decline in Oil Production.

It may be of interest to note that the Rumanian production of oil which is so vitally important to Germany declined during the first half-year of 1941, so that for 1941 the production was estimated at 5,200,000 tons against 8,700,000 in the year 1936. As Rumania has to cover its own use out of this production, less oil was available for export, though in the first six months of 1941 oil formed 72 per cent of the total Rumanian exports. It was estimated that Rumania would be able to export during 1941 a maximum of 3,100,000 tons, the value of which, however, will be as great as that of the export of 1940 and far superior to the value of the much larger export of 1938 or 1939. Of the four districts producing oil in Rumania, Prahova, Dambovitsa, Bacau and Buzau, the most important is the first, in which Ploesti is the largest city. Its productivity has suffered less than that of the other three districts. See also GERMANY; NEW WORLD ORDER.

1940: Rumania

Political Changes.

In 1940 Rumania passed through the most crucial year of its existence since in 1918 the country, widely enlarged, emerged from the World War. She underwent not only a change in her internal governmental structure, accompanied by severe rioting and grave excesses in which many valuable lives were lost, but she was also shorn of several territories which she had acquired as the result of victorious wars in the second decade of the present century. While Rumania at the beginning of June 1940, counted about 20,450,000 inhabitants, by the end of September this number had been reduced to about 13,291,000. Of the 6,754,000 souls which she had lost, about 4,000,000 were incorporated into the Soviet Union, 2,370,000 into Hungary and 330,000 into Bulgaria.

The internal change in Rumania was best expressed by its transition from a monarchy where the king held autocratic power to the formation of a so-called legionary state, in which the king played only a purely titular role and all the power was concentrated in the hands of the legions of the Iron Guard. The Iron Guard, one of the earliest Fascist movements in Central Europe, goes back to the middle of the twenties when Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, then a student of law at the University of Jassy, killed the police prefect of the city and founded a movement for the racial and Christian regeneration of Rumania under the name of the Legion of the Archangel Michael, which spread quickly among the youth, army officers and especially the Greek Orthodox clergy. Within this legion Codreanu founded a political section which was called the Iron Guard, and which in 1931 participated in the elections for the first time. In 1932 Codreanu and four other members were elected to Parliament. The rise to power of Hitler in Germany gave a new impetus to the movement, so that the then Prime Minister of Rumania, Duca, saw himself compelled to dissolve the Iron Guard. Shortly afterward he was assassinated by the Iron Guard, and Codreanu reorganized his group under the new name, Totul Pentru Tara, 'everything for the fatherland.' This party started a relentless campaign against democracy, for a close alliance with Germany and Italy, against the Jews and the national minorities, and the elections of December 1937, proved the party to be the third strongest in Rumania.

The internal chaos which threatened to engulf the Rumanian state forced King Carol to establish a royal dictatorship in February 1938, and to dissolve all parties including Codreanu's. The discovery of a plot by the Iron Guard to march on Bucharest led to the arrest of Codreanu and some of his lieutenants, and in May 1938, Codreanu was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. But in the fall the Fascist terrorism in Rumania flared up again with renewed violence. As a part of its policy of repression the government decided to transfer Codreanu and thirteen other terrorists to a military prison; on the way the fourteen were shot by the police as they 'tried to escape.' These energetic measures had been taken by the then Minister of the Interior, Armand Calinescu, who, however, on Sept. 20, 1939, himself fell victim to the terrorism of the Iron Guard. The changed international situation and the increased pressure by National Socialist Germany on Southeastern Europe in 1940 gave to the Iron Guard the opportunity to avenge the executions of its leaders, to remove King Carol, and to establish with the help of General Antonescu a party dictatorship in Rumania under the leadership of Horia Sima, who had returned for this purpose from Germany. The conservative dictatorship of the king was now replaced by the Fascist dictatorship of the Legion. (See also EUROPEAN WAR.)

Foreign Relations and Question of Oil Supply.

In the first part of 1940 the Rumanian government under King Carol tried to play a waiting game and to avoid taking sides too openly in the European war. Rumania had been guaranteed in 1939 by Great Britain. Her independence had been protected by the rivalry between Germany and the Soviet Union. The conclusion of a pact of friendship between these two powers and the disappearance of Rumania's friend and ally, Poland, in the second half of 1939 rendered the Rumanian position much more difficult. Rumania's geographic situation commanding the mouth of the Danube and the approaches to the Black Sea and the Bosphorus was equalled by her economic importance, not only on account of her supply of foodstuffs, but especially in view of the large oil fields. In 1937 Rumania produced 53,300,000 42-gallon barrels of crude petroleum, or about 3 per cent of the world's total production. Thus Rumania was the most important of all the oil-producing countries in Europe outside the Soviet Union. While the oil wells in Rumania belonged in the majority to British, French and American capital, Rumania in view of her geographic situation exported most of the oil to Germany and to Italy. Germany was of course most eager to obtain complete control of the Rumanian oil supply, and generally to incorporate the Rumanian economic system into the German system. The year 1940 saw the realization of this aim.

At the beginning of 1940 King Carol and Crown Prince Michael visited Bessarabia and Bukovina, and King Carol in his speeches stressed Rumania's resolve to defend her frontiers against any aggression. His utterances reflected official worry about the possibility that the Soviet Union would try to claim Bessarabia which had formed part of Russia until 1918; the danger from the Soviet Union was the greater because Hungary and Bulgaria with renewed energy tried to put forward claims for the territory which they had lost to Rumania in 1918 and 1913 respectively. As serious as this territorial pressure was the economic pressure exercised upon Rumania by Germany on the one hand and by Great Britain and France on the other.

Rumania had pledged herself to deliver 1,560,000 tons of oil to Germany in 1940, and Germany insisted not only upon the delivery of this amount but upon its increase, while the British-, French- and American-owned oil fields did not wish to operate for the production of oil for shipment to Germany. The problem of petroleum sale was further complicated by the fact that Germany wished to pay for only a small proportion in free currency or in gold, whereas she wished to receive the bulk of the deliveries in exchange for German imports, while Rumania needed free currency for buying products and raw materials which Germany was not able to supply. The Western powers used economic pressure to counter-balance Germany's military pressure and geographic proximity.

Internal Affairs.

Showing increasing concern over the possibility of war in the spring, at the end of February Rumania increased her armed forces to a virtual state of mobilization and put her economic life on a war basis. Suggestions from Germany, which offered to guarantee Rumania's frontier against the virtual monopoly of Rumania's oil and wheat, and from Italy, which proposed Rumania's inclusion in the Anti-Comintern Pact, were declined. In opening the Rumanian Parliament on March 7, King Carol laid special stress on the country's rearmament and declared that Rumania would remain neutral commercially as well as militarily. At the same time the king, apparently under German pressure, proclaimed a royal clemency for many of the Iron Guardists who had been imprisoned in 1938. They pledged allegiance to the king and joined the National Rebirth party, the only legal party existing in Rumania. Officially it was proclaimed that by this step internal peace had been secured. At the end of March a German economic mission under the leadership of Dr. Karl Clodius arrived in Rumania to conclude trade negotiations about speeding up Rumanian oil production and vastly increasing her farm output. As a result, Rumania mobilized her youth into a vast agricultural army to aid crops, and agreed to change the exchange rate of the German and Rumanian currencies to the advantage of the former. In his policy of appeasing the Fascist circles in Rumania, King Carol went further by decreeing on April 26 a far-reaching political amnesty. Prime Minister George Tatarescu hoped for the possibility of cooperation between the government and all parties in Rumania in view of the rising external danger.

The successes of the German army in the later part of the spring of 1940 brought with them a reorganization of the Rumanian government. Foreign Minister Grigore Gafencu, who was well known for his sympathies with the Western democracies, resigned on June 1, and was replaced by the Minister of Communications, Ion Gigurtu, a close friend of National Socialist Germany. On June 19 King Carol received the leader of the Iron Guard, Horia Sima, and a decree issued by the king on June 21 dissolved the National Rebirth Party and tried to reorganize the state on strictly totalitarian lines in accordance with the principles of the Berlin-Rome Axis. A new Party of the Nation was founded which was to be joined by the Iron Guard; it accepted the Fascist principles and proclaimed itself openly as anti-Semitic. (See also RELIGION: Jews.)

Relations with Germany.

On June 27 the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina with the capital of Czernowitz. Bessarabia had formed part of Russia until 1918, while Bukovina had been part of Austria and had never belonged to Imperial Russia. Rumania, partly under German pressure, accepted the occupation and ceded the lands to the Soviet Union, which now extended its hold to the mouth of the Danube. In view of the general European situation, King Carol on July 1 renounced the British and French guarantees of Rumanian independence which he had received on April 13, 1939. Large fleets of German bombers landed at Rumanian airports, ostensibly to protect the Rumanian oil fields. Harassed by urgent Hungarian claims for the restitution of Transylvania and by Bulgarian demands for the Dobruja, King Carol's government veered completely towards Germany, hoping to receive a German guarantee against further dismemberment. These changes were accompanied by anti-Semitic riots in many cities of Rumania. On July 4 the Cabinet of Rumania was entirely reconstructed with Ion Gigurtu as Prime Minister and the Iron Guard Leader Horia Sima as Minister of Culture. British engineers working in the oil fields were ordered to leave Rumania immediately. Thus the king threw in his lot with the Axis powers. The government assumed dictatorial powers over foreign capital invested in the country's oil industry, and the Astra Romano, the largest oil company which was controlled by British and Dutch interests, was taken over by the Rumanian government.

Problem of Transylvania.

Meanwhile Rumania declared herself willing and ready to cede territory to Hungary and Bulgaria, and in August official negotiations started between the governments concerned. While the discussions between Rumania and Bulgaria proceeded more or less smoothly, Hungary and Rumania could not agree upon a partition of Transylvania. Several serious border clashes on the Rumanian, Soviet and Hungarian frontiers were reported. When on Aug. 30 the award was made which ceded the whole of Northern Transylvania to Hungary, Rumanian public opinion protested violently against it. Many Rumanians regarded Transylvania as culturally and politically the most progressive and nationally conscious part of the country. A German offer to guarantee the remaining frontiers of Rumania did not allay the growing indignation against the further dismemberment of the country. The award did not take into consideration the ethnographic and economic conditions, and was dictated purely by the strategic and political exigencies of the Axis. Vast anti-Axis demonstrations followed in Transylvania and throughout Rumania.

Abdication of King Carol.

This unrest gave to the Iron Guard and to Germany the welcome opportunity to effect a final change in the political set-up of the country. On Sept. 3 it was reported that King Carol escaped a Fascist plot of assassination and the abdication of the king was demanded. Crown Prince Michael, who was nineteen in October, was to be made king. General Ion Antonescu supported the demands of the Iron Guard and prevailed upon the king to name him dictator. In the ensuing chaos Carol was forced to abdicate, and he left the country secretly for Spain with his friend of many years, Mmc. Magda Lupescu. Michael was immediately invested with the crown and his mother, the former Princess Helen of Greece, divorced wife of Carol, was called back from exile. Arrests of many of the important political, military and economic leaders of the country occurred. On the same day, Sept. 6, an official agreement between Bulgaria and Rumania for the cession of the southern Dobruja to Bulgaria was announced. Thus the Iron Guard, profiting from the general dismay over the Vienna award, was able to force the abdication of Carol and to establish a completely Fascist dictatorship by the forces of the Legion. General Antonescu, was now the real head of the country, but his control was precarious in view of the anarchistic character of the Iron Guard movement, which subjected General Antonescu and Horia Sima to increasing terrorization by irresponsible and radical groups. Systematic murder, which was introduced into Rumania as a political instrument by the Iron Guard, came now fully into its own.

Rumania Joins Axis; Earthquakes; Iron Guard Uprising.

From the moment that the king abdicated, events in Rumania moved swiftly. Many of the generals and socially prominent people were arrested, the Iron Guard organized units throughout the nation, parts of the army were demobilized, new anti-Semitic measures were taken. Although General Antonescu promised to respect property and pledged to keep order, his resolution was of no avail against the Iron Guard. The new government asked Germany to send a military mission to reorganize the Rumanian army. Prime Minister Antonescu officially joined the Iron Guard on Oct. 6. The flags of the Axis and of Japan were displayed in profusion with the Rumanian flag. Germany began to pour large numbers of soldiers and of war matériel into Rumania, which were officially destined to guard the Rumanian oil fields against any British attack. The situation in Rumania was further complicated by a heavy earthquake on Nov. 10, although official censorship made it impossible to determine the exact damage done throughout the country. On Nov. 23 Rumania adhered officially to the German-Italian-Japanese Axis, having been preceded in that step by Hungary, and followed the next day by Slovakia. Only four days later the whole of Rumania was the scene of widespread massacres. The Iron Guard had got out of hand, and the result of this new order was that sixty-four of the leading officers and dignitaries of the country were killed in a vast 'blood purge.' The bodies of Codreanu and thirteen other Iron Guard leaders who had been shot while 'trying to escape' in November 1938, were exhumed in the gloomy courtyard of Jihlava military prison, and the sixty-four victims of the purge were executed on the same spot. The disorder in the country revealed dissension in the ranks of the Iron Guard itself, but finally General Antonescu succeeded in reestablishing some order. The Iron Guard arranged for a public funeral of Codreanu and the other 'martyrs.' The elaborate funeral services were held on Sunday, Dec. 1. By Dec. 4 Rumania was reported to have emerged from its days of terror, in which more than four hundred persons were believed to have been killed. An agreement providing for extended German credit to Rumania to execute successfully a ten-year plan for the reordering of Rumanian economy in conformity with the German economic system was announced on Dec. 4. Thus Rumania, dismembered and having undergone internal chaos, became for all practical purposes a German protectorate.

1939: Rumania

The year 1939 was full of dramatic events in the history of the Balkan kingdom which, under the energetic leadership of King Carol II, had to weather great storms in its internal life and foreign relations. Situated at the mouth of the Danube and on the Black Sea, rich in wheat and oil, Rumania is in a strategic position coveted by many of the countries preparing for war or warring in Europe. In view of the composite character of her population, Rumania could not feel secure from her neighbors. Bulgaria to the south claimed the Dobruja, which she had lost to Rumania in 1913; Hungary claimed Transylvania, which she had possessed until 1918; the Soviet Union claimed Bessarabia and certain parts of Northern Rumania inhabited by Ukrainians. Germany was most eager to subject Rumania, at least to complete economic control, and to exploit the rich natural resources of the country. The Soviet Union aspired to the inclusion of Rumania into her system of security. Italy was eager not to allow any exclusive domination of the Balkans by the Soviet Union or Germany. Great Britain and France were interested in maintaining Rumania's independence. As against the growing menace of German or Soviet penetration of the Balkans, the Balkan States themselves tried to form a defensive alliance; but their mutual jealousies and the negative influence of Italy have thus far frustrated all attempts. Under these circumstances Rumania had the most difficult task of keeping the balance between these conflicting tendencies. The great poverty of her population and her army's entire lack of modern military equipment did not facilitate this task.

Calinescu Premier.

Patriarch Miron Cristea, Prime Minister of the National Government which had been formed to combat the Fascist Iron Guard, died on March 6. He had headed the Rumanian Church since the establishment of the Patriarchate in 1925 and had become Premier in February 1938. The Vice-Premier, Armand Calinescu, became Premier. He had been already Minister of the Interior in the short-lived, pro-Fascist and anti-Semitic cabinet of Goga; and he could be relied upon to follow the King's policy of a right-wing dictatorial régime with many concessions to the Fascist viewpoint, without, however, adopting Fascism outright and with a strong insistence upon Rumanian independence. It was this government which concluded on March 24 a five-year economic, industrial and commercial treaty with Germany.

Treaty with Germany.

This treaty, which put virtually every phase of Rumania's agriculture, industry, transportation and exploitation of natural resources under German control, was a result of the great push which had carried Germany to the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia and of Memel, and to the conclusion of similar treaties with Lithuania and Slovakia. According to this agreement Germany was to absorb practically everything that Rumania produced, whereas Rumania was to receive by barter exchange manufactured German products. This treaty, however, was never put into full effect.

Integrity Guaranteed by Britain and France; Trade Agreement.

Great Britain and France, now awakened fully to the danger of further aggressive German designs, tried to alleviate Rumania's economic position and guaranteed her independence and territorial integrity in case she should decide to take up arms against a German aggression. On May 12, an Anglo-Rumanian trade agreement was concluded which in promising Rumania British loans for the development of her industries would counteract the intended monopolization of Rumania's economic life by Germany. The Rumanian Government declared in an official statement that the development of the country's economic life must be a factor for peace and not a cause for rivalry. Rumania accorded most-favored-nation treatment to all corporations financed in greater part by British interests, and Britain promised to facilitate the importation of Rumanian wheat and lumber. A credit of $25,000,000 to allow the Rumanian Government to purchase goods in Great Britain was, in addition, extended by the British Government.

National Elections.

On June 1, elections were held in Rumania for a new Parliament according to the new dictatorial electoral law. The present régime has abolished all political parties with the exception of the one government party, the Party of National Rebirth. Only members of this party are allowed to vote. The new Parliament includes a senate of 176 members, half elected and half appointed by the king, and a Chamber of Deputies of 258 members, of whom 86 are elected by the corporations of agriculture, of the liberal professions, and of trade and industry respectively. All electoral campaigns were strictly forbidden. The newly elected Parliament could not be expected to exercise any power whatsoever in view of the royal dictatorship.

Assassination of Calinescu.

That the Fascist Iron Guard had not yet lost all its hold on the population was clearly shown by the discovery on June 17 of an alleged plot to assassinate King Carol. A nation-wide round-up of former members of the outlawed organization followed, and many of the leaders were arrested. A similar plot by the Iron Guard succeeded on September 20, when Armand Calinescu, the Prime Minister, was assassinated in one of Bucharest's main streets. The assassination was intended as a prelude to a National Socialist uprising; but the movement was quickly and ruthlessly smashed, the nine assassins immediately captured and executed on the site of the assassination. Imprisoned leaders of the Iron Guard perished, and many suspected of affiliation with this revolutionary body were apprehended and executed in the purge that swept through the land. Calinescu was the second Rumanian Premier to have been assassinated by Iron Guardists. In December 1933 the assassination of Premier Ion G. Duca had ushered in a period of force and violence in Rumanian politics.

New Anti-Nazi Government.

King Carol named a new government with General George Argesanu as Premier, General Ion Ilcus as Minister of the Interior, and General Gabriel Marinescu as Minister of War. This government quickly restored order by strong-handed methods, so that on September 28 Constantine Argetoianu, President of the Senate, could become Prime Minister. The international situation forced Rumania, however, to change the Cabinet on Nov. 24 after a majority of the ministers had rejected Germany's reported demands for a virtual monopoly over Rumania's oil and raw material exports. The new head of the government, George Tatarescu, had played a prominent role in Rumanian politics and had been Premier from January 1934 until the autumn of 1937. He is a staunch supporter of the King and is supposed to have pro-French sympathies. Rumania's foreign policy, however, remained unchanged, and Grigore Gafencu, the Foreign Minister, was retained in the new Cabinet.

Trade Negotiations.

The new ministry found itself soon in the midst of trade negotiations with Germany and with Great Britain. Both countries competed for Rumania's exports, essential for the maintenance of their war machines. The German negotiations centered around a protocol to the commercial accord of March 1939, the provisions of which were so far-reaching that Rumania was unable to carry them out. Geographic position makes Rumania especially vulnerable to German pressure, and Germany possesses in the Danube a convenient means of transportation for Rumanian goods. Germany is also able to use Hungary's demands on Rumania as a means of pressure.

Hungarian and Russian Territorial Demands.

In the second half of November the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Stefen Csaky, voiced energetically Hungary's demands for a revision of her frontier with Rumania and hinted at the desire for the return of Transylvania. Rumania's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Grigore Gafencu, answered on Nov. 29 with a forceful speech in which he stressed his country's neutrality and, at the same time, its resolution to maintain its frontiers intact and to meet any aggression with armed force. The position of Rumania had become critical in the fall on account of the Soviet Union's expected demands upon Bessarabia and her gain of more extensive frontiers with northern Rumania in what had formerly been Polish territory.

Cooperation with Turkey.

Of utmost importance for Rumania was her close cooperation with Turkey. In case Rumania were involved in war, any help from Great Britain or France depended entirely upon the possibility and readiness of Turkey to allow help to reach Rumania. In her treaties of mutual assistance with Great Britain and France, Turkey promised to come to Rumania's help in the event of her being attacked; but in these treaties an important exception was made in the case of the Soviet Union. Rumania tried also to maintain closest diplomatic and military relations with Yugoslavia, and this effort was facilitated by the family ties between the two royal houses. See also BALKAN ENTENTE; LITTLE ENTENTE; RELIGION: Jews.

1938: Rumania

New Government.

The year 1938 brought a sequence of dramatic events for Rumania. The anti-Semitic Government of Octavian Goga, which had come into power at the end of 1937, dissolved the Parliament in which it could count upon the support of only a small minority, and the campaign for the new elections promised to throw the country into further confusion and even into civil war. Under these conditions King Carol II felt himself authorized on Feb. 10, 1938, to suspend Parliament, to halt the elections, to dismiss the Cabinet, and to name a new Cabinet under the Presidency of Miron Cristea, a Transylvanian Orthodox priest, who had been since 1925 Rumanian Patriarch. George Tatarescu, a member of the former Liberal Party, who for many years had been Prime Minister before Goga came to power, became Deputy Prime Minister. The formation of the new government was a blow directed at Julius Maniu, the leader of the Democratic opposition in Rumania, and at Codreanu, the leader of the extreme Fascist group.

New Constitution.

A new Constitution confirming the results of the royal coup d'état was promulgated by King Carol II on Feb. 20; and within four days the Rumanian people were asked to accept or to reject this new Constitution without any possibility of closer study and under the abolition of freedom of meeting, discussion, and the press. Naturally, the people accepted the new Constitution with an overwhelming majority, 99.87 per cent of the population voting for this new instrument which established an unlimited dictatorship by the King. All existing parties were dissolved, and Codreanu dissolved his Fascist party, 'Totul Pentru Tara' ('Everything for the fatherland'). All the executive and legislative powers passed into the hands of the King, who entrusted the administration and the supervision of the country to the army. All constitutional liberties were completely abrogated. In her foreign policy, Rumania maintained a friendly attitude toward all countries and strict and loyal adherence to her alliances with France, the Little Entente, and the Balkan Entente.

Imprisonment of the Terrorist Codreanu.

In April, the King struck a decisive blow at Codreanu, whose Fascist legions were preparing an armed rising against the Government. Codreanu had founded, in 1927, when he was a young lawyer of 28 years, a nationalistic legion for the racial and Christian renovation of Rumania under the name Legion of the Archangel Michael. His group, later called the Iron Guard, managed to win, in 1932, four seats in the Rumanian Parliament. From that time on, the Iron Guard launched a violent terrorist campaign in Rumania. In 1924, Codreanu himself had been accused of killing the prefect of the police of Jassy. Now, in a quick succession, prominent members of the Government and of the Administration were murdered by Codreanu's bands. Prime Minister Ion Duca was killed on Dec. 30, 1933. By his unceasing propaganda, by his terrorist methods, and by his complete devotion to his ideals, Codreanu exercised a growing influence upon a large part of the Rumanian youth, especially at the universities, and won also many adherents from among the clergy and the army officers. In the elections of December 1937, Codreanu's party gained third place among the parties. His program included a war of extermination against democracy, against the minorities, especially the Jews, and a complete reorientation of Rumania's foreign policy in the sons of a close alliance with Italy and Germany and an abandonment of the agreements with France and Czechoslovakia. The Government of King Carol anticipated Codreanu's planned armed march upon Bucharest, arrested him and some fellow leaders, and on May 27 sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.

King Carol's Foreign Undertakings.

These energetic measures on the part of the Government assured Rumania some peaceful months, during which the main attention of King Carol was directed to foreign affairs. The growing tension between Czechoslovakia and Germany was of the utmost importance for Rumania, Czechoslovakia being Rumania's ally and at the same time a bulwark for the protection of Rumania against German penetration. During the crisis King Carol remained faithful to his country's obligations under the Pact of the Little Entente. The partition of Czechoslovakia and the growing influence of Germany and Hungary in Central Europe made Rumania's position more difficult, especially since Hungary was ambitious to recover the Transylvanian territory which she had had to cede to Rumania after the World War, in spite of the large Hungarian minority in Transylvania. King Carol maintained friendly relations with Poland during 1938. The Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Beck, visited him in October in an effort to make him agree to a complete cession of Carpatho-Russia to Hungary, but King Carol objected, fearing aggrandizement of Hungary. After the partition of Czechoslovakia, King Carol undertook a trip to London, Paris, and Germany. He tried to win the cooperation of the Western Powers for the protection of Rumania's political and economic independence against Germany, but he found very little encouragement. In Germany, he agreed to far-reaching economic cooperation with that country, to which he promised the whole supply of Rumanian wheat and oil, the latter to be conducted by pipe-lines to be built from Rumania through Czechoslovakia.

Suppression of Fascist Terrorism.

This new situation and the growing influence of Germany inspired the large youthful following of Codreanu to renewed activity and filled them with assurance that the day of their victory in Rumania was approaching. This Rumanian Hitlerist movement, which had adopted the symbol of a blue swastika on a yellow field, and whose followers were dressed in green shirts and wore Sam Browne belts, imitated all the Nazi slogans and added to them a mystical belief in the sacred soul of Rumania and in Greek Orthodoxy. Now the terrorist campaign was revived, and at the end of November three members of the Iron Guard dangerously wounded the Rector of the Cluj University, Professor Florian Stefanescu-Goanga. The Government decided to transfer Codreanu and thirteen other Iron Guard leaders who were serving prison sentences to a military prison. During this transfer the fourteen terrorists were shot by the police, who maintained that an effort had been made to rescue them. All fourteen had committed murder, Codreanu himself as a student having killed, or been accused of killing, the police prefect of Jassy, three others having been convicted of assassinating Prime Minister Duca, and the ten remaining having been convicted of the assassination of a former Iron Guard leader, Mihail Stilescu. The stern suppression of Fascist terrorism in Rumania evoked the wrath of German Nazi circles. But the Rumanian Government proceeded with the round-up of Iron Guard members throughout the country — most of them students — convinced that a wide-spread movement had been in preparation for the overthrow of the régime by coordinated terrorist action, probably supported by outside sympathies.

The 'Front of National Renaissance.'

As a consequence of the situation created by the forceful suppression of the Iron Guard and its leaders, King Carol established on Dec. 15 a new united party of all Rumanians, to be called the Front of National Renaissance. It will be the only political organization legally recognized in the Rumanian Kingdom. It will nominate all the candidates for election to the Rumanian Parliament and to the provincial and municipal councils, so that there will be no opposition in the coming elections. People participating in any other organization will be sentenced to a loss of citizenship and its rights for a period of years. All Rumanian citizens of more than twenty-one years of age may become members of the new organization, the task of which will be to strengthen the national conscience and to work for the consolidation and integration of the Rumanian state. See also JEWS.