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issue  institution,  the  National  Bank,  by  the  issue  of  notes  of  the  Banca  Generala
Rom&na,  to  be  extended  by  the  clauses  of  the  treaty,  stipulating:
1.  That  the  account  of  the  Bank  at  the  Reichsbank  in  Berlin  of
180  million  Marks  which  was  the  price  of  the  corn  sold  and  consumed  by  the
Germans,  should  pass  to  the  Roumanian  Government.
2.  The  participation  of  two  German  Commissaires  in  the  central  administration ­
  of  the  Bank,  and  one  in  each  branch  office  of  the  bank  with  large  rights
of  control.
3.  The  reception  for  loans,  of  requisition  bonds  without  indicating  any
limit.
4.  The  creation  of  a  central  office  for  devizes  with  two  German  Gommissaires
  having  the  right  of  deciding  devizes  operations.
It  is  evident  that  the  National  Bank  seeing  in  what  a  hard  predicament
the  State  was,  and  imbued  with  its  duty  of  granting  it  every  possible  assistance
within  the  terms  of  the  law  and  of  its  statutes  and  in  the  interest  of  public  credit
showed  the  State  what  were  its  views,  answering  point  by  point  to  all  the  questions ­
  which  were  set,  but  naturally  without  any  result.
Parallel  to  this  a  well  determined  plan  was  established  which  practically
had  as  its  objet,  that  the  wasting  of  the  occupied  territories  should  be  extended
by  the  clauses  of  the  Treaty  to  Moldavia  and  Bessarabia.
One  of  these  clauses  especially,  the  delivery  of  corn  was  carried  out  with
the  greatest  punctuality.
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  hardships  of  the  Roumanian  population  in  the
sad  times  through  which  it  passed  could  not  remain  without  an  echo
in  the  world  of  the  Allies,  giving  them  o  glimpse  of  what  they  were  to  expect
in  the  event  of  a  German  victory,  and  we  can  mention  that  this  made  them  see
what  the  enforcing  of  the  clauses  of  that  Treaty  would  have  meant,  if  against  all
expectations  the  Central  Powers  had  been  triumphant.
Luckily  that  the  whole  organization  of  trumpeting  their  succeses  all  over
the  world  fell,  their  hopes  of  victory  were  finally  lost  in  the  autumn  of  1918
and  the  Central  Powers  compleely  exhausted  had  in  their  turn  to  bow  down
and  demand  peace.
In  November  1918,  the  Roumanian  Government  though  being  under  the
rule  of  an  imposed  peace  had  no  intention  to  leave  lassi  and  to  resume  the
course  of  public  life  as  long  as  the  troops  of  occupation  were  still  scattered  over
01  tenia  and  Muntenia.JWith  the  same  spirit  in  which  she  entered  the  war,  Roumania
  declared  the  peace  which  had  been  imposed  on  her  and  which  she  had
never  scantioned,  as  nonexisting  and  taking  up  arms  flew  to  chase  the
enemy  from  the  occupied  territories,  so  that  the  armistice  of  1918  found  us  again
under  arms  and  by  the  side  of  the  Allies,  proving  that  in  spite  ot  the  Russian
defection  the  soul  and  the  discipline  of  the  Roumanian  soldier  had  not  been
shaken.
The  circumstances  at  that  time  enabled  the  Roumanian  army  to  be  ready