RUMANIAN MISRULE

Hokitika Guardian, 23 June 1928, Page 4

RUMANIAN MISRULE

Transylvania, failure.

(By Sir Percival Phillips). BUCAREST, April 21

Transylvania, tho most valuable of Rumania’s possessions, is a melancholy vieitim of niisfnanagemeiit. This province, which lias an area of 68,000 square miles .and a population (according to the last' census )of 5,500,CCO of whom only 3,400,000 are Rumanian, looked forward to a new era of development and' prosperity. It brought as its contribution to Greater Rumania the bulk of Hungary’s natural wealth—coal mines, 'gold mines, forests, and industrial plants—a gift regarded 'with envious eyes by the other Powers of ‘Eastern Europe.

What lias Rumania made of it? Nothing. The record of the post five years’ rule by Bucarest is a record of failure. Economic disaster has given birth to a' politcial crisis of the first magnitude. Tho impoverished and embittered people of Transylvania are solidly united under M. Julio Mania, leader of the National Peasant Party for the overthrow of the present autocratic regime on the far side of the Carpathians. When all is said that can be said in extenuation of the Government’s unhappy adventure in Transylvania, th,ere remains a grave indictment of political intolerance and of inefficiency in economic, financial, and administrative affairs which cannot lie effectively combated. The Hungarians left behind a highly competent Civil Service which Bucarest proceeded to scrap without delay. There were no effective replacements, for old Rumania lacked the necessary material. She could not administer her old territory competently, much less create ail organisation capable of taking over a new area two-thirds as large. The result was a ramshackle patchwork bureaucracy from Bucarest,

which tended to regard the Transylvanian as a semi-foreign colonist to be exploited in the interests of tlie old governing class. It is truo that tlie failure of last year’s harvest cannot be ascribed fo the incompetence of tlie Government, although undoubtedly it- contributed to the present economic distress, for 80 per cent of Transylvania’s population is oil the land. But tho discontent of tlie peasants goes deeper than that. Tlie Government divided tho land among them but failed to give them implements for tilling it or adequate transport for carrying their produce to market. Moreover, it imposed such heavy import and export tariffs that prices for many essential articles are now prohibitive. , Many peasants are drawing on their life savings in local banks. The banks in turn are in a bad way and a number of the smaller ones have gone under. Bankruptcy has overtaken business firms, and those still alive are staggering under the excessive rates of interest charged for loans. Taxes arc at the highest possible figure. Both Transylvania and the Bnnat complain that they have been unfairly treated by the National Bank in regard to the grant of discount credits. There lias been a general slump due to the pressure Of Bucarest’s economic policy. Prices for grain are down owing to competition from the. old kingdom; cattle prices have dropped because the old markets of Central Europe are 110 longer available. Obviously this state of affairs pre-

vents any assimilation of Transylvania by the old kingdom. Bucarest has gone to great pains to erec-t barriers, which have only divided the country against itself.

The traveller in Rumania liqars on

all sides the most circumstantial stories of abuses perpetrated at the time of the Inst elections, when Opposition mass meetings were prevented, and “faked” ballot . boxes were substituted for those containing the votes cast by the followers of M. Maniu. This Transyiyania lawyer lias given me a very definite and dispassionate review of the case against the Government. Ho convinces those who listen to his arguments that he is not attempting to set Up a regime which would be in any way Socialistic. PEASANT PARTY’S AIMS. jf. Maniu has thus summed up for me the aims of the National Peasant Party;

We are fighting for a Parliamentary regime based on the will of the people, which will respect the Constitution and the laws and ensure the holding of elections honestly and fairly. We demand the abolition of privilege, and opportunity for. nil. The policies of tho two political parties are diametrically opposite. The Liberals represent a little prewar Rumania, highly centralised, dinging to Oriental methods of government and administration, supporting a fictitious Parliament, and accepting modern ideas and methods of development with reluctance. The National Peasant Party represents the new world which has emerged from the world war, Western in thought, liberal in aims, and devoted to the progress of Greater Rumania without permitting the' exploitation of one part of the kingdom at the expanse of another. ' We demand efficiency in the publicservices. adequate pay for competent officials, and the dismissal of all cor--rupt and incompetent public servants; the rehabiliation of industry, and due regard for the essential needs of our agrarian population. The universal discontent of the Rumanian people to-day is ciue to the maladministration of the country by the centralised Government of Bucarest. in their bands the Constitution, which confers certain political rights, has become rio more than a scrap of useless paper. The revolution I have described has already made great progress, and it will succeed. .