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CHAPTER II 
THE WAR PERIOD (1916—1918) 
SECTION 1 
ROUMANIAS CONTRIBUTION 
According to the terms of the treaty of alliance and of the military con 
vention, on August 14th 1916, Roumania declared war on Austro-Hungary her 
troops taking up the offensive along the whole frontier of the Carpathians. 
We will not analyse the military operations as they followed their course, 
but it is certain that the spirit with which Roumania rushed into the war, was 
of such a nature, that she spared nothing out of her armed force, though practi 
cally her military preparation had not arrived at a sufficient degree of perfection 
and of fitness at which the Germans by their experience of war, and their special 
training in that line, had arrived. 
This first period of the war was a series of heroical deeds and sacrifices, for 
which the Roumanian soldier spared nothing. 
The central Powers were obliged to send important forces and all their mo 
dern war apparatus, to conquer inch by inch and after hard struggles the moun 
tain passes. And probably the advance of those forces would not have had the 
same success, if the action at Salonica had been carried on in the conditions laid 
down in the treaty of alliance, and if the allies on whieh we counted more espe 
cially, had not aggravated and impeded our military action by the slowness of 
their movements. 
The countrieswhich have not experienced the exodus of the retreat, will not 
be easily able to appreciate the wisdom of the Roumanian nation, when it gave 
up to the discretion of the invading armies, which were affrighted by the 
specter of famine 2 / 3 of the richest territory of the country. If we add to this 
that all the institutions on which the supplies of the army were based for renew 
ing its stocks were centralized in Bucarest, any body can see what endeavours 
had to be made, to dispel the despair which had begun to take hold of all, in 
front of this undoubtable reality. 
I. 
The Brittanic corn. 
After the retreat of the troops, the corn which had been deposited in spe 
cial warehouses built and arranged by the Roumanian State, on the demand of 
the British Government, would have fallen in to the hands of the enemy. 
Out of this quantity of corn, the, following quantities were transported 
and sold : 59 truck loads to the Russian armies, and 
18.000 trucks for the needs of the Roumanian army, the countervalue of 
which must be considered as a regular war loan granted to Roumania especialy