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As  regards  private  external  debts  we  only  had  two  more  important  claims
of  the  United  States  amounting  to  about  300  mill.  (The  Baldwin  works  and  a
part  of  the  Interoceanie  Company  Bonds)  which  by  the  arrangements  we
have  made,  we  have  been  able  to  consolidate  for  long  enough  terms  m  which  the
annuities  can  be  supported  by  the  ordinary  budget  of  the  State.
The  elasticity  of  our  budget  allows  us  to  a  certain  extent  to  foresee  not
only  the  possibility  of  satisfying  these  ontstanding  obligations,  but  also  to  begin
the  work  of  reconstruction,  so  imperiously  demanded  by  the  necessities  of  our
enlarged  country,  and  which  up  to  now  have  only  been  undertaken  in  a  very
feeble  proportion.
In  order  to  arrive  to  such  a  result  in  a  comparativly  short  time,  Roumania
  was  obliged  to  restrain  all  its  wants  and  to  demand  sacrifices,  especially
from  two  classes  of  citizens;  the  State  Officials  and  pensioners,  and  those  bavin" ­
  suffered  damages  by  the  war  —  For  the  first,  the  balancing  of  the  budget
and  the  increase  of  the  State  revenues  allowed  us  to  give  very  important  sums,
although  insufficient  ones  during  the  last  four  budgets  (nearly  6  milliards  of
lei),  but,  also  to  be  enabled  by  the  budget  of  1925  to  undertake  for  the  future  a
question  of  normalizing  the  salaries  paid  by  the  State.
If  new  charges  had  not  come  upon  us  from  abroad,  if  the  policy  of  order
in  expenses  and  of  good  administration  of  the  revenues  will  be  not  only  continued ­
  but  also  strengthend,  by  the  works  which  are  beeing  prepared  by  the
Central  Commission  for  reorganizing  the  public  services,  we  hope  that  in  a
short  time  this  question  also  will  be  completly  resolved.
As  regards  those  who  suffered  damages  by  the  war,  the  tact  of  our  former
enemies  not  having  fulffilled  their  obligations,  and  in  general  the  means
adopted  for  applying  the  Treaties  have  obliged  us  to  meer  the  satisfaction  ot
these  claims  within  our  own  feeble  means.
The  Roumanian  State  was  placed  in  the  painful  dilemma  of  making  like
France  an  anticipated  payment  of  the  war  damages,  without  having  yet  received ­
  them  from  the  enemies,  endangering  in  this  way  her  general  finalicia
consolidation,  or  to  assure  first  that  consolidation,  which  means  general  prosperity, ­
  in  order  to  be  able  after  that,  by  her  proper  means  to  compensate  the  non
payment  by  our  former  enemies.
The  importance  of  the  damages  suffered  by  Roumania  compared  to  our
public  wealth  (over  31  milliards  of  lei  gold,  most  of  them  proved  by  judicial
sentences).  The  spread  of  these  damages  on  account  of  their  nature  over  the
whole  surface  of  the  land  and  all  branches  of  activity,  and  especially  the
fact  that  many  of  these  damages  could  not  be  directly  estimated,  being  t  e
consequences  of  the  disorganization  and  general  destruction  brought  on  by
the  war  and  the  occupation  by  the  enemies,  and  also  destruction  by  some  of
the  allies.  The  issue  of  notes  of  the  »Banca  Generates  the  monetary  unification,
the  stopping  of  transports  for  more  than  three  years,  the  destruction  of  industrial ­
  plants  especially  the  petroleum  works,  the  prolonged  mobilization  ol  the
Roumanian  army  etc.  allows  us  to  assert  that,  as  the  whole  of  Roumania