partially, whereas the presence of the Russian army on the Roumanian terri 
tory, became not only a charge, but even an additional danger 1 ). 
Abandoned by her Eastern ally, isolated from her Western allies, surround 
ed on all pirts by mortal enemies, Roumania resisted heroically, she went 
through all the hardships and disasters of war, and for nearly two years, not 
cared for by any body, she lives the most tragical page in her history which 
bad ever been tragical enough. 
Only those who were then in Roumania, reduced to a corner of her terri 
tory, can have an idea of the sacrifices made by her for the common cause, 
resisting, and by her resistance forcing the Russian army on her territory to 
prolong the maintaining of the Eastern front, which otherwise it would have 
abandoned much sooner. 
Later events have proved how the aid given by Roumania s Eastern ally 
was carried out, and how this aid ended by the Russian betrayal. Roumania 
found herself at that moment in the difficult and unprecedented position o 
a belligerent whose ally not only forsakts him, but what is more, turns against 
him, without having the possibility, on account of her geographical position, 
of receiving any help from her other allies. 
Roumania, who from the beginning had suffered the hardships of war, 
when the aid of her Western Allies in arms and ammunition, did arrive, though 
after long delays, when the Russian aid on the Roumainian front, did arrive, 
though insufficient and late, now by the falling off of the Russians, found 
herself completely cut off from the allies, and encircled by the enemy. 
After the first disasters, the Allies, fearing lest the petroleum reserves 
and oil industry should fall into the hands of the enemy, strengthening by this 
means its power of attack on the Western front, (for we all know what a de 
cisive part petroleum plays in modern warfare), demanded at the hands of 
Roumania the material sacrifice, of destroying this industry herself, by setting 
fire to the reservoirs, factories, wells, in fact all that constituted up to that mo 
ment, one of the most important riches of our country. 
The sacrifice on the part of Roumania of her only source of combus 
tible was such a tremendous loss, that the allies acknowledged Roumania’s 
title of creditor for the material losses she had suffered from this destruc 
tion in the interest of the common cause, and they undertook to pay these da 
mages directly to her. 
The advantages brought to the common cause, by this destruction, are 
evidenced by the weakening it produced for the enemy who counted on sup 
plies of oil products, so necessary in modern warfare, from Roumania 2 ). 
') The effective Russian forces on the Roumanian territory, were : 43 divisions of infantry and 11 of ca 
valry, that is 1.000.000 men, of which aboul 530.000 were fighting troops, and the rest commissariat, and 
ditfdrent hospit al services, etc. 
s ) Ludendorf in his hook >!Ki"iegserienerungen« writing about the Roumanian oil products, says: »The 
stocks of petroleum which we found in Roumania, were not very considerable, The drilling plant had moreover 
been completely destroyed, and the wells skillully filled op. The English Colonel, Thompson, had fulfilled his 
task, which consisted in preventing us from working the oilfields. Hir work however did not render great ser-