LIFE IN JASSY.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1917, Page 4

LIFE IN JASSY.

Difficulties of a Temporary Capital (By Hamilton Fyfe, Daily Mail Special Correspondent in Lie mania.) Imagine the seat of government of the British Isles suddenly plumped down in a city no larger than Southport or Ba;h l Think of a population of 75,000 increased by an inflow of 50,000 new inhabitants ! Huw are these to bi housed ? How can they be fed ? Where are the Government Offices to establish themselves ? How shall the Foreign Legations find suitable quarters ? By what means can the resources of the town be so developed as to suffice for for a population nearly double that of ordinary times ? It will be long before these questions are all satisfactory answered. In the meantime those who show energy and enterprise are managing to settle down and get on with their work. The others (who are the majority) are waiting for something to turn up, and they are likely to wait for some time, The difficulties of changing chaos into •rder are all the greater by reason of ' the very large number of troops who are passing through Jassy (pronounced lasby). As I am writing there pass by my window a mile at least of transport waggons belonging to a brigade that has come in by road. The streets are filled with Russian soldiers in their winter cap# of sheepskin. In the oafes all day long two-thirds of the marble-topped tables are occupied by Russian officers drinking tea. With the brown Russian uniforms miDgle the blue of the Rumanian Army, the smart cloaks and kepis of innumerable French officers, the slategrey tunica of the Serbs, and the khaki cf the British Red Cross Ambulance men. This is the ambulance given by the Miners’ Federation to Rumania. It was to have gone on to Bucarest./ The news of the evacuation of the capital kept it here. Where it is to establish itself has not yet been decided, among all these on the square in the centre of the town and up and down the narrow thsronghfareß, well paved, and lined with well-stocked shops, move the peasants with their ox-carts;and notables of Jassy, who represent the highest culture of the country ; and the Jews, who form so large an element here, keepiug in their hands almost all the business, wholesale as well as retail, of the neighborhood. The wed-tc-do Jews have comfortable, even luxurious, houses ; educate their daughters io convents kept by French nuns ; send their sons to the university ; dress like other well-to-do people; and resent bitterly the law that treats them as strangers in the land. The Rumanians insist that they are s'raDgers who flocked in without being invited, and who would, if they were admitted to citizenship set up a political as well as a commercial domination. The question has many sides to it, end is far too big for me to diseuss, in passing now. CITY OF PALACES." Pleasanter to speak of the magnificent situation of Jassy, perched oq a hill among the mountains of Moldavia, with glorious views on every side, and an atmosphere which, after the flavourless air of Buearest, is deliciously fresh and invigorating. It has the aspect from the valley of a city of palaces. An immense administrative building looks like a royal residence. The domed and pointed towers of famous churches support th 9 illusion. . When you climb the hill and make the town’s acquaintance you find it less thrilliDg than it appeared from a distance, but, nevertheless, an agreeable and from certain points of view an interesting place, Of the two provinces which-were united to make Rumania a kingdom, Wallachia is by

far the rioher, but Moldavia has-always claimed, and justly claimed, to be the intellectual partner. In this small centre there are as many good bookshops as would be found in half a a dozen small English towns of the same size.

The Moldavians are proud of their birth. They are proud of having furnished most of Rumania’s prominent statesmen.

In Moldavia the peasants preserve their own particular character and costume. They mingle a good deal of Slav melancholy and fatalism with

their more robust and cheerful Latin origins. Their songs are plaintive; their philosophy teaches the acceptance of whatever God sends, the folly of trying to interfere with the decrees of Nature. If their harvest is good they live better than usual, but make no attempt to put by for a rainy day. They will even say it is sinful to save. “ What God gives he gives to be consumed, not to be treasured up.” It can easily be imagined that the Moldavian peasant has a hard life as a rule. In their broad-brimmed wideawake hats, long blouses reaching to the knees ana drawn in at the waist with a belt of red, tight cotton troupers, leather jackets embellished with embroidery and fur, the men look prosperous and care free on Sundays, while the women’s dresses are dainty and. gay, But in the fields they are like scarecrows, and one notices that the . prettiness of the girls soon becomes hardened and coarsened by open air work. Those cf the peasants who come into town now gaze with astonishment at the dense crowds in i(s usually quiet streets. If they were to go into the restaurants they would be more astonished still by the din and chatter. One feels as one -sits among the turmoil as if one were dining in a cage with all the parrots and all the monkeys in the “ Zoo.” There is no reserving of tables. Either you go very early or you wait your turn in a queue at the' door, lu order to eat more quietly and at their own time some groups of diplomats and French officers have formed themselves into messes. For this a cook is necessary, however, and cooks are scarce. I met the secretary to the American Legation hunting for one. He had been appointed housekeeper pro tern, and his arms were full of parcels. As he tried to areet an acquaintance with a wave of bis hand a stream of apples flowed turbulently lo the ground. It increased my admiration for him to eee that he was not in the least abashed.

An Englishman would have been covered with confusion. HIGH HO'IEL PRICES. There is talk of measures being taken to check rhe rapacity of hotel keepers and those who are letting ruCins at rates which would pay for expensive apartments in London or ; Paris. Twenty, thirty, forty pounds ■ a month are asked and gladly given for single rooms, and small ronms at that. In the shops the prices are to match. No matches can be bought, no sugar, no wood. Tea and coffee have risen to five times their usual value. In the restaurants the dishes cost the same as before. This was arranged by the authorities. But the size of the dishes has decreased to such an extent that oae needs three or four portions to make up what formerly was the amount of nourishment contained in one.. The croakers who always make their unwelcome voices heard in momontc of diffianlty prophesy that rOOu there will be a famine. This was the state of the town before the whole of the official world reached here. The Legations were at Jassy for three days without any sign "of the Ministers following them. The understanding was that the latter were to leave Bucareßt at the same time. Each day trains arrived bringing the staffs of Government Departments, bui M. Bratiano and his colleagues lingered still. It should be understood that the Legations acted upon instructions and in the belief that onmplete evacuation was to be carried out at once. It now appears that the instructions were given in a panic stricken hour. All newspaper correspondents were ordered to leave with the Legations but we have no means of sending telegrams from Jassy, for there is no censorship here, It is very unfortunate for Rumania'that at so tense a moment London and Paris should be dependent upon the German communiques for news of what is happening in this country,