HOW ROUMANIA SUFFERED.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 March 1917, Page 1

HOW ROUMANIA SUFFERED.

Spoiling the Country. Breaking Germany’s hopes JASSY, Dee. li. During the last week (says Mr Hamilton Fyfe in the “Daily Mail”), I have been in bed only twice, so if these pictures and impressions are a little disjointed I think I may reasonably ask to be forgiven. As I look back, these seven days seem like a nightmare born of (the huge flares of burning petrol, lakes of petrol rivers of petrol, set < fire 'to sot purpose in order -to prevent the enemy from getting lubricating oil. I fancy it is the destruction of the petrol industry of Roumania which will leave the deepest imprint on my imagination. I have been with armies in retreat before. It is always a hateful experience. This retreat was hastier than the others I have seen, but in essentials not different. The attack on the' oil-fields was something entirely new. I had tried to picture it to myself beforehand, but without success. Tho reality was such as no man’s miua. could have qorfceived in advance. E'ven to convey any idea of it is difficult after it has happened. The whole business appears to me now so fantastic 'that I catch my seif doubting if it really did happen. That it could be possible to wipe out- so completely the slowly-built result of years upon years of thought and labour, or highly trained intelligence, and of highly skilled labour had never eceuiivu to me. When I heard the talk first cl what could he done to prevent the oil falling into the enemy’s possession I had a vision of tanks set alight of derricks at the well-heads demolished. VIGOROUS DESTRUCTION. Destruction of that which has been created by man’s energy for the satisfaction of tho world’s needs, of that which provides profit and wages for hundreds of thousands of people and so enables them to live, must be a hideous, saddening spectacle. Thai, •Elm tviwL-iimr ivns Imvnnrl nil OUOStion

the wrecking was beyond an question necessary made the case no better. It added to it a horrid irony. We wore forced to defend ourselves against barbarians by barbarous mean};. To leave the oil-wells untouched would have been a crime, The Germans and their dupes need lubricants very badly. These were the only oil-fields from which they could get them in any quantity. They would have benefited by the products of Ithe Rumanian wells for as long, as they occupied the oil region, i hen they would have destroyed the industry themselves so as to prevent the Allies from making use of it. It wa's therefore an urgent matter, when the enemy flood came pouring over the Rumanian plain, sweeping tiie 'Rumanian Army before it, to set about destruction with vigour. Fortunately a very vgorous man was sent out from England to direct it. Colonel Norton Griffiths surprised not only the Rumanians by his energetic methods: he surprised the Americans as well. To see him wielding a big hammer, swinging it round his head, and smashing up machinery with it, just to show how the work ought to be done, made one poetical mine-manager describe bis as being “in love with ruin.” Neither weariness nor danger could daunt him. When the petrol in basins would no): light quickly he took bundles of straw, thrust them into it, and set them alight, escaping just in time, His helpers were worthy of their chief. The. task of destruction was worse for them, since, they were wrecking what they had themselves helped to build; but they went alt it with a fury of

determination to leave nothing of what they had built to aid the enemy. “It was pretty hard,” one of .them said, on the morning after the finish of the wrecking process at Moreny, the mosft productive of the oil districts; “it was pretty had to break up ones home, furniture, books, grand piano, everything. But we did it thoroughly, by Jove! Millions of pounds’ worth of property, destroyed in a few days. Oil burrft, wells blocked, machinery demolished, refineries put out of action. Some wreck, believe me.” All over (the country round about, .the smoke of the bon fires turned day into night. At Targovista, 20 miles distant, there rolled over the town, at four in ithe afternoon,, a dens® hlafik fog which hid fcbs

In Bucharest the population eonu scarce believe itlie tale that came jm. . Ploesti, the oil town. They had heard for the first time the day before the murmur of cannon, mill far «... while they were trying to keep their •spirits up they had the accounts of wrecking. They knew now there «;..■> little hope of saving the capital. A little before this a train bad gone through the station filled with soldic ; and refugees. Whenever 1 used ims railway in these pitiful days I foiu ■! crowds of refugees at every station. .Rich and poor, old and young, wonun with tiny children, babies a few >,cel..-> old even, huddled together on the platform and in the trains, cold and hungry, cramped and sore. There was nothing whatever to cat at the railway stations. I saw a kindly American oil engineer sharing a loaf with a Roumanian colonel and cutting chunks of the bread for two boys who had hern ordered, as all men between eighteen and forty-six were ordered, to leave the district that was in dang< r of occupation. i he prices that well-to-do people paid tor vehicles to take them into safety oven before there was any immediate danger, were enormous. For a motor car to go from Bucharest to Ploesti £320 was paid. And, after all, Ploesti fell before Bucharest. For cabs many paid £(>7, £7O, and £BO. All Englishman and his wife drove in a cab from Bucharest to Galatz. They were eight days on the way Another British couple with a baby two weeks old fought their way into a train. ROAD CONFUSION. How long a train will take to roach its destination cannot tie guessed. One day I waited at Galatz Station from

two o’clock till eight, the stationmaster assuring me every liouy that . a train would come soon. It came at eight, started at ten, and made fairly good progress. At six in the morning we were 50 miles- off the town I was making for. But we did not get there until six in the evening. On the roads there was more freedom of movement, but one was liable at any moment to get mixed up in a jam of ox waggons, motor transports, liny carts, driven cattle, and retreating troops. On the highway that leads northward, from Bupeu, a few days before the enemy came to this region, four transport columns were straggling along at once. Among them, in an iextricable mess, were refugees in all kinds of vehicles, from small open cabs to lumbering farm waggons drawn by white oxen with magnificent horns. I had been during the day at ft - village where the Staff lived and worked. Towards evening I motored into Ploesti to get some food. Vain hope! At the railway station restaurant, where one could generally count upon a meal, there was nothing. Fortunately a companion and.l had provided ourselves with an emergency ration. We pulled out half a cold turkey, ordered glasses of tea, and fell to. While we were .eating, the restaurant was invaded by the Headquarters Staff. Their special trains, which had been waiting for days with steam up ready to start at any moment had just conic in. Wo shared our turkey with acquaintances’ and were invited to join tile train. After a run cf three hours we came to a little town where the Staff were supposed to stay. At midnight it- was too late to search for billets, so we slept in the train. Unfortunately it was not heated. The cold kept one a'wnke. Next ' day everybody was sneezing and coughing and complaining of rheumatic pains. In a trench one can keep warm, or in a loft with some straw to lie upon, even in the open on the ground if one is sheltered from the wind. A railway carriage on a bitter night is Arctic.