57

Towards
Austria

Nusecured

Towards
Hungary

18.815.925  kronen  gold  (capital)
3.831.156  kronen  gold,  marks  french  franch,dutel
florins,  pounds  sterling  (capital).
101.548.408  kronen  paper 1 )  (capital)
252.785.469  kronen  gold  (capital)
139.213.000  kronen  gold,  french  francs,  marks.  L.  st.
(capital)
1.006.691.592  kronen  paper  ')  (capital)

This  question  of  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  public  debt  is  of  the  greatest
importance,  both  on  account  of  the  considerable  sums  it  represents,  as  well  as  of
the  complexity  of  the  different  questions  which  are  in  connection  with  this  obligation ­
  and  is  expounded  in  a  memoir  of  the  Roumanian  delegate  at  the  Commission ­
  of  reparations  (Annexe  74.)
From  the  works  of  the  Commission  of  reparations  for  determining,  estimating ­
  and  sharing  the  Austro-Hungarian  public  debt,  we  see  that  two  very  big
injustices  have  been  committed  towards  Roumanie  :
1.  In  the  first  line  for  the  secured  debt,  the  date  of  the  F‘  of  July  1919
was  fixed  for  putting  it  on  the  charge  of  Roumania,  although  we  all  know  that
the  property  which  constituted  the  pledge  of  this  debt,  and  which  was  transferred ­
  to  Roumania  did  not  co  me  into  her  possession  until  a  much  later  date.  Till  the
end  of  the  year  1919  Roumania  was  obliged  towage  a  regular  war  against
Hungary  whose  armies  in  a  complete  state  of  anarchy  refused  to  acknowledge
the  armistice  and  she  was  therefore  obliged  to  conquer  by  force  the  territory
which  the  Treaty  of  Trianon  had  given  her.
The  injustice  committe  1  by  fixing  this  date  of  the  1 st  of  July  1919  was
acknowledged  in  fact  even  by  the  Committee  of  the  Commission  of  reparation
which  was  charged  with  sharing  the  Austro-Hungarian  public  debt.
2.  In  the  second  line  debts  which  by  right  ought  not  to  fall  to  the  charge
of  the  Roumanian  State,  such  as  the  loans  for  the  Iron  gates  of  the  Danube,  and
the  Lemberg-Cernauii-Iassy  railway,  were  inscribed  amongst  these  public  debts
put  to  the  charge  of  Roumania.
By  the  Treaty  of  London  (1870)  and  the  Congress  of  Berlin  (1878)  a  mandate ­
  on  the  part  of  Europe  was  given  to  Austro-Hungary,  to  execute  the  works
at  the  Iron  gates  giving  her  at  the  same  time  authority  to  levy  a  navigation  tax,
with  the  proceeds  of  which  Austro-Hungary  ought  to  discharge  annuities  on
the  interests  of  the  loan  she  had  contracted  for  executing  these  works.  Austro-Hungary
  passed  this  charge,  which  had  the  character  of  a  European  mandate
to  Hungary  alone.
We  must  remark  that  these  works  did  not  interest  a  single  State,  but  all
the  States  whose  boats  pass  by  the  Iron  gates.
It  is  therefore  a  flagrant  injustice  to  put  the  loans  necessitated  by  the
works  for  the  Iron  Gates  exclusively  to  the  charge  of  Roumania  while  the  navi-*)

  The  kronen  paper  will  be  invested  in  lei,  in  accordance  with  the  treaties  at  the  si  me  rate  of  exchange
as  was  done  at  withdrawing  the  currency  :  that  is  2  kronen,  iqual  1  len.