Fear in Rumania

From Bucharest TIME's Correspondent Percival Knauth cabled:

Two great questions dominate Rumania today: 1) What will the Russian policy be? 2) To what extent will Allied influence prevail in the Balkans? On the first question the Rumanians are characteristically pessimistic--at worst, they think their country will become a Soviet Republic; at best, they believe that Moscow wants to install a Communist government, preceded probably by revolution. On the second question the Rumanians live on hope from day to day, waiting for an Allied mission to take its place beside the well-staffed Soviet Embassy.

There is no doubt about the sincerity of pro-Allied sentiment in Rumania. But toward Russia the attitude of Rumanians has gone from bad to better to worse. Before the Russians entered Bucharest, the people were plain scared. The Red Army entered the city and quietly passed through, leaving small contingents behind.

But more Russians came, Russians who had been fighting Germans and Rumanians from Bessarabia to Stalingrad and back again. They came to a country rich in everything they had done without for more than three years. They came with only the barest minimum of supplies. They started requisitioning. Some started looting. Some got drunk and started taking women. For a while the Red Army went on something like a spree.

Their officers needed cars. With little or no ceremony they took them where they found them--sometimes right off the street, in the owner's absence. They needed quarters, and requisitioned them. And the Russian soldiers found an easy way to get watches: they walked up to somebody on the street, asked the time, looked at the watch and, if they liked it, took it.

Shots at Shadows. The Russians imposed a curfew on Bucharest and a vigorous blackout. After 9 o'clock nobody was allowed on the streets. Russian patrols roamed the city all night long. They were not used to peaceful cities ; they only knew ruined cities in which every shadow might be an enemy. They shot at shadows, even at one another.

Sober-minded Rumanians and neutral observers in Bucharest realize that the policy of the Red Army does not represent the policy of Moscow. But they have grave worries which go deeper than blind pessimism.

Economic Fears. First, they have economic fears. More than three and a half billion lei worth of rubles are now circulating in the country, with no backing whatsoever. They can be cashed only at the Rumanian National Bank, for 20% of their value in cash and the rest in bonds, which can be used only for income taxes. The Rumanian National Bank does not know what to do with the lei.

Second, some eight to nine billion lei worth of cattle, food and fuel have been requisitioned. Included in this is a large amount of agricultural machinery and grain. More worrisome is the fact that seed grain has also been taken. The outlook for next year's harvest is gloomy.

Third, transport is badly disorganized. Some principal railways are being changed to wide-gauge, to accommodate Russian trains, making Rumanian rail transport useless.

Fourth, the lack of housing and fuel is beginning to be seriously felt as winter approaches. Some towns, like Ploesti and Campina, have been almost completely destroyed by bombing. The influx of Russian troops sharpened the housing shortage. As a result, the Rumanians are beginning to requisition housing themselves for their people.

Political Fears. Out of these economic facts grow political fears. Rumania is a country of social inequality, and its social system rests on shaky foundations. The present government rests on a coalition of four parties: Peasant, Liberals, Social Democratic, Communist. Communism is not strong in Rumania; the Communist Party claims only about 2,000 members. But the presence of the Red Army makes the Communists feel stronger, and they hold something like a whip hand in the Government, because they are able at any time to brand it as reactionary simply by withdrawing their support. What the Russian attitude toward the Communists is is not clear, but they do not openly or officially support them.

Democratic elements realize that the present Government must be changed to a less military and more political one. But they are afraid to precipitate a change, because it might give the Communists a chance to stage a coup. Cold, hungry people are bitter people, easily incited to action, and many Rumanians this winter are likely to be both cold and hungry.

Over this whole political picture hangs the great question mark of Russian policy. Most Rumanians have forgotten, or doubt, Foreign Commissar Molotov's declaration of last April that the Soviet Union has no territorial ambitions beyond its own frontiers, no intention of changing the social or political structures of other nations.

One can't help getting the impression that Rumanians are hoping that the Allies will save them from their Russian fears. They believe that there are fundamental differences between the war aims of the Allies and the Russians, that the Soviet Union is out to get what it can from a mariage de convenance with Britain and the U.S.: at the least, the Balkans--at the most, Europe east of the Rhine.

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