Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1916, Supplement, The World War

File No. 763.72/2929

The Minister in Roumania (Vopicka) to the Secretary of State

Roumanian Series No. 541

Bucharest, September 8, 1916 .
[Received October 11.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to my two telegrams Nos. 275 and 279 dated July 20 [18] and 22, respectively, and also to my telegram of August 13 [14], 1916, and to Department’s replies Nos. 288 and 297.¹

With reference to the information contained in my above-mentioned telegrams, I beg to point out that everything that I predicted there has been proved to be true, namely, that the Russians had an agreement with Roumania in accordance with which the ammunition for Roumania was allowed to pass into Roumania from Russia and under which the Roumanians agreed to allow the Russians to march through Roumania about August 18, old style, 1st of September, new style.

The Ministers of the Central powers, more especially the German Minister, told me that they all depended on the word of the King and of the Prime Minister and expected that the country would remain neutral. They therefore assured their people up to the very last moment, that is to say Saturday, August 26, that nothing would happen in Roumania. Contrary to this opinion, on Sunday, August 27, a Crown council was held as per my telegram No. 297, and as soon as the council was over general mobilization was ordered. This was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of Sunday, August 27, and at 9 o’clock on the same evening Mr. Mavrocordato, the Roumanian Minister to Vienna, presented the declaration of war from Roumania against Austria-Hungary. (A copy of this declaration is enclosed herewith.)

The same evening there was a great demonstration of the people in Bucharest at which it would seem all the classes took part, more especially the younger generation. Thousands of people paraded the streets everywhere, and although as a rule the Roumanians are quiet on this occasion there was much shouting and crying out “Long live the King,” etc.

The public lights were [are?] dimmed in all private houses and at 9 o’clock they must be extinguished. If the windows are heavily curtained candles are used in the interior of houses, but in general there are no lights at all and darkness is prevalent nearly everywhere.

During the night of Monday, August 28, aeroplanes and “parsi-fals” belonging to the Central powers flew over Bucharest and threw several bombs without causing much damage.

The raids up to date have been as follows:

• Monday, August 28
• Tuesday, August 29
• Sunday, September 3
• Monday, September 4
• Wednesday, September 5 [6]

It would seem that these aeroplanes are endeavoring to destroy the powder factory at Dudesti, which is a few kilometers outside of Bucharest. On Monday, September 4, the attack was particularly violent. Aeroplanes flew over Bucharest dropping bombs on the residential portions of the city, and I therefore sent my telegram No. 310¹ asking the Department to strongly protest against such bombardments.

On Tuesday afternoon, September 5, I visited the places where damage had been caused by bombs. One bomb fell just behind the Royal Palace, destroying a printer’s shop, another fell in the vicinity of the General Staff headquarters, destroying completely a police station, another fell just opposite the residence of the Russian military attaché and damaged completely a dwelling house, two bombs fell close to the residence of Mr. Take Ionesco, and the British Legation, only about a thousand yards from our Legation.

On Sunday, August 27, the German Minister came and asked whether our Government would represent the interests of Germany, and on August 30 the Ottoman Minister asked whether our Government would also represent Ottoman interests. Having received the authorization from the Department to comply with their requests, I notified the Roumanian Government that the Government of the United States had been asked to represent German and Ottoman interests in Roumania and that I was authorized to take charge of these interests providing such action were agreeable to the Royal Roumanian Government. The Government has consented to this arrangement and we are at present very busy looking after these interests.

From the time of the order of mobilization until the departure of the ministers belonging to the Central powers from Roumania, the Roumanian Government adopted a rule that all these ministers, as well as the diplomatic corps and consular officials, should be kept in their respective legation buildings and not permitted to circulate on the streets, giving as a reason for this measure that it was taken from [for] their personal safety. Food was supplied to them by one of the assistants of the Foreign Office which was to be paid for by the legations.

In the meantime each legation prepared a list of people they wished to take with them on the special train which the Foreign Office put at their disposal. The Germans had a large number of persons whom they wished to take with them, as there were a number of German subjects in Roumania who had been buying grain for the German Government. The German Minister wished to take all these people on the special train. Many of them were arrested the first day of mobilization, Sunday, August 27, and it took a great deal of work to get these people free so that they could leave by the special train.

The German Legation left, in addition to our present office staff, several employees to assist in attending to German interests in Roumania. I am enclosing herewith the names of these persons together with the salaries the German Minister, Mr. von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, asked that they should be paid.

The Ottoman Legation left only two men in charge, G. Avian Effendi, clerk; and Youssouf, as doorkeeper.

I beg to state that the declaration of war on Austria-Hungary has made the Roumanian people happy. In general they feel that their country has joined the right side and that now they are about to realize their national dream of uniting Roumanians under one kingdom by getting Transylvania from Hungary.

The Roumanian Government asked me to suspend sending cipher messages for about four days, as the telegraph office is not in order. They also asked me to send my telegrams in the French language. I have complied with their request, but I have sent a note to the Foreign Office stating that my attitude in the transmission of cipher telegrams must not be considered as in any way compromising the policy of the Government of the United States in consistently reclaiming the privilege of uninterrupted cipher communication between itself and its missions abroad and between the several missions themselves, and I expressed the hope that the period of interruption of such telegraphic communications was ended. No reply has as yet been received to this note.

Owing to this war it is reported that the Roumanian Government will confiscate money deposited in banks by belligerent subjects as well as business firms. There are some American firms, who have money deposited in German banks and also have outstanding claims against German firms. In this connection I would cite the International Harvester Corporation of Chicago, Illinois, who have money deposited in German banks and also have money due to them from some German firms. I have written to the Foreign Office regarding this matter and will keep the Department informed concerning same.

On Monday, August 28, the Government had notices inserted in the newspapers and also notices posted on all street corners ordering an [all] German, Turkish, Bulgarian, and Austro-Hungarian male subjects, from the age of 16 years upwards to proceed to Ialomiţa, near Calaraşi, by trains indicated, for internment. I understand that there are approximately fifty thousand men of belligerent countries at present interned there. Their wives and children had the option of accompanying them or remaining in their homes. I have asked permission from the Foreign Office to visit this camp in order to ascertain the conditions pertaining therein.

Americans and their property are unmolested and will be adequately protected. I beg to inform the Department that I have been treated with the utmost courtesy and cordiality at the Roumanian Foreign Office and nearly all my requests have been granted.

I have [etc.]

Charles J. Vopicka

[Enclosure—Translation]

The Roumanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the American Legation

Bucharest, August 15, 1916 / August 28, 1916 .

The Royal Department of Foreign Affairs has the honor to send annexed to the Legation of the United States of America copy of the text of the communication made by the Roumanian Minister at Vienna on the 14/27 August at 9 p. m. in the name of the Royal Government to the Imperial and Royal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary.

[Subenclosure—Translation]

The Roumanian Minister in Austria-Hungary (Mavrocordato) to the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Burian)

The alliance concluded between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, according to the declarations of the Governments themselves, was only of an essentially conservative and defensive character. Its principal object was to guarantee the allied countries against every attack from without and to consolidate the state of affairs created by previous treaties. It was with the desire to accord its policy with these pacific tendencies that Roumania joined this alliance.

Devoted to the work of its internal reconstitution and faithful to its firm resolution of remaining an element of order and of equilibrium in the region of the lower Danube, Roumania has never ceased to contribute to or to maintain peace in the Balkans. The last Balkan wars, by destroying the status quo, have imposed on it a new line of conduct. Its intervention hastened peace and reestablished the equilibrium; for itself it was contented with a rectification of frontier which gave it more security against aggression and which at the same time repaired the injustice committed against it at the Congress of Berlin. But in the pursuit of this purpose, Roumania was deceived in not finding on the part of the cabinet at Vienna that attitude which it had a right to expect.

As soon as the present war broke out, Roumania, as Italy had done, declined to associate itself with the declaration of war of Austria-Hungary, of which it had not been forewarned by the cabinet of Vienna. In the spring of 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary the Triple Alliance no longer existed. The reasons which had determined the adhesion of Roumania to this political system disappeared at the same time. Instead of a grouping of states trying by common efforts to work in agreement to secure peace and to preserve the actual and lawful situations created by treaties, we found ourselves in the presence of powers who were making war precisely for the purpose of changing from bottom to top the ancient order of things which served as a basis for their treaty of alliance. These profound changes were for Roumania a proof positive that the purpose which it had in view in joining the Triple Alliance could no longer be attained and that it must direct its attention and its efforts in new directions; the more so as the work undertaken by Austria-Hungary was developing a character menacing to the essential interests of Roumania as well as to its most legitimate national aspirations.

In the presence of such a radical modification of the situation created between the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Roumania, the latter has retaken its liberty of action.

The neutrality which the Royal Government imposed upon itself in consequence of a declaration of war made against its wish and contrary to its interests had been adopted in the first place in consequence of the assurances given at the beginning by the Imperial and Royal Government that the Monarchy, in declaring war on Serbia, was not inspired by a spirit of conquest, and that it was by no means in pursuit of territorial acquisitions. These assurances have not been carried out.

To-day we find ourselves in face of a situation whence may flow great territorial transformations and political changes of such a nature as to constitute a grave menace to the security and future of Roumania. The work of peace which Roumania, faithful to the spirit of the Triple Alliance, had tried to accomplish, was thus rendered sterile by the very people who were called to support and defend it.

By joining in 1883 the group of Central powers, Roumania, far from forgetting the ties of blood which united the peoples of the Kingdom with the Roumanian subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, saw in the friendly relations and alliance which had been established between the three great powers a precious guaranty for its internal tranquillity as well as for the improvement of the lot of the Roumanians in Austria-Hungary. As a matter of fact, Germany and Italy, which had reconstituted their states on the basis of the principle of nationality, could not but recognize the legitimacy of the foundation on which rested their own existence. As to Austria-Hungary, it had in the amicable relations which had been established between it and the Kingdom of Roumania assurances for its tranquillity both internally and on the common frontiers; because it could not be without knowing how the discontent of the Roumanian population was affecting us and menacing each moment the good relations between the two States.

The hope from this point of view which we had founded on our adhesion to the Triple Alliance has been falsified. During a period of more than thirty years the Roumanians of the Monarchy have not only never seen the introduction of a reform of a nature to give them the semblance of satisfaction; they have on the contrary been treated as an inferior race and condemned to suffer the oppression of a foreign element which only constituted a minority among the various nationalities which constitute the Austro-Hungarian State. All the injustices which our brothers have had to suffer have maintained between our country and the Monarchy a continual state of animosity which the governments of the Kingdom have only appeased at the price of great difficulties and numerous sacrifices.

As soon as the present war broke out, it was hoped that the Austro-Hungarian Government, at any rate at the last hour, would at last be convinced of the urgent necessity of making to cease this injustice which not only put in danger our amicable relations but also the normal relations which should exist between neighboring states.

Two years of war, during which Roumania has preserved its neutrality, has proved that Austria-Hungary, hostile to all internal reforms that might ameliorate the life of the peoples which it governed, has proved it as ready to sacrifice them, as powerless to defend them against external attacks.

The war in which nearly all Europe is taking part has brought under discussion the gravest problems touching the national development and even the existence of states; Roumania, moved with the desire to hasten the end of the conflict and under the necessity of safeguarding its race interests, has been obliged to come into line alongside those who are able to assure to it the realization of its national unity.

For these reasons it considers itself from this moment in a state of war with Austria-Hungary.

1. For No. 275, see ante, p. 39; No. 279, ante, p. 40. The last three telegrams mentioned are not printed.
1. Evident error in number; probably No. 82 (not printed; see File No. 763.72116/375).