CONDITIONS IN RUMANIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3609, 15 May 1923, Page 21

CONDITIONS IN RUMANIA

LONDON, April 23. As foreign newspaper correspondents are flocking to Bucharest to witness the socalled Rumanian revolution, the Bucharest correspondent of The Times describes the “revolution” that happens every Sunday. The opposition parties hold mass meetings in the suburbs, after which they march into the fashionable Victories street, w-here demonstrations are forbidden.

There is always a large force, of police ready, but as it consists of elderly men unfitted for strenuous duty, the garrison is always called out to oppose a line of bayonets to the demonstrators, though it has strict orders not to fire. The revolutionaries taw to push paet until the leaders get their toes Ranged with rifle butts and their clothes perforated with bayonet points. A select few are then arrested, the revolution is quelled, and everybody goes home for lunch. The rising becomes a really desperate affair when water hoses are used against the opposition leaders, who gallantly stand their ground under shelter of umbrellas. The play is, however, a tragi-oomedy, since 90 per cent, of the people believe, with a good deal of justice, that the Govi ernment is ruining the country.