CRISIS IN RUMANIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17012, 10 April 1923, Page 9

CRISIS IN RUMANIA.

A GENERAL DISCONTENT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, April 9. The “Westminster Gazette's’* diplomatic correspondent in Rumania says that as showing the - discontent that prevails, it is significant that the Queen of Rumania paid one lengthy visit to her daughter ill Belgrade. The Government is evidently alive to the danger of a revolution, though it denies that this is due to the Government forcing a change in the constitution, which the minorities regard as an attempt to centralise power in the hands j of the old Rumanian oligarchy. The Hungarians in Tran sly vania. and the Saxonians, Serbs and Germans in Banal, are all in a state of unrest. The Hungarians regard the attempt by the Central Government to deprive them of local civil autonomy as unjustifiable. The Saxonians are also opposed to being absorbed. Moreover all the landed proprietors fear being dispossessed in favour of Rumanian peasants. Transylvania is now obliged to import wheat, as the peasants who acquired land are unable to work it. The Government’s efforts to restore the railways have met with little Success. - There has been a phenomenal fall in the rate of exchange, and the recent, loan was a failure, so that there aro many elements of unrest ’which may culminate in a revolution. Fortunately for the Government, racial divisions and jealousies afford a, certain security. The old Rumanians are united, and as they number fifty per cent of the popu - lation. they may be able to deal with the other national elements. Hungary is following events with great interest, as she fears that the reparations now being arranged will be crushing, and* she is in no position to offer resistance. A previous message stated: A sharp constitutional crisis is in progress. The Senate and Chamber have .approved a new Constitution, which the National and Peasant- Parties are angrily opposing. This opposition has caused the Government to bring a strong force of troops to Bucharest to oppose the opponents of the Bill, who are demonstrating against the President of the Council. M. Bratianu, and his followers. as a camarilla which is giving bad advice to the King. Recent advices from Rumania to English papers show that excesses against the Jewish population have been raging for some. - time past. In Bucharest all Jewish students were ejected from the University building, and the Jewish medical students had their instruments taken away from them. The Rumanian Medical Association protested strongly to the Government for allowing such things to be possible. “The Aurora," the organ of the Romanian Peasants’ Party, came c-ut with an attack against the Government, alleging that the excesses have been organised by Government agents. The Jewish population in Kronstadt has formed a self-defence brigade- In Bucharest, M. Tanasse, the trade unionist leader, issued a proclamation calling on ail trade unionists to join a special defence corps to combat the work of the reactionaries.