Sweeping Reforms

The new peasant-born Prime Minister of Rumania, Dr. Juliu Maniu, who has just ousted onetime Dictator Vintila Bratiano (TIME, Nov. 19), took characteristic action, last week, as follows:

P: Dismissed every one of the notorious 12,000 Secret Police, who won so many elections for the "House of Bratiano by terroristic methods.

P: Dismissed to their homes all youths who had come up for compulsory military training in 1926.

P: Ended the "state of siege" and "martial law" which has been maintained since the War in a ring of Rumanian territory 35 miles wide encircling "the country just inside the frontier. But, prudent, the Peasant Prime Minister established a new 10-mile wide zone of "martial law" along the Russo-Rumanian frontier, since most Rumanians fear attack by the Bolshevist "Red Army."

P: Addressed correspondents thus: "Today is a festival of liberty. The most important factor in liberty is the freedom of the press. Henceforth you are free to carry on your profession and I promise to keep you accurately informed."

Notorious, of course, was the always stifling and often stupid Bratiano censorship of the Rumanian press.