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zation  of  all  the  forces  by  putting  together  the  ressources  in  men,  capital,
and  credits,  and  the  intervention  of  the  States  took  place  without  weighing  the
financial  difficulties  which  were  to  be  met  in  carrying  on  the  hostilities.
The  granting  of  loans  to  the  Allies  during  the  war  does  not  mean  granting
a  contribution  to  the  State  which  borrows,  but  for  the  common  cause  of  the
Allies,  the  common  war.
That  is  why  from  a  strictly  juridical  point  of  view  the  nature  of  the  claim
for  interallied  debts  is  that  of  a  contractual  obligation,  and  from  the  point  ot
view  of  equity  the  nature  of  the  claim  is  quite  special.  Besides  these  general
arguments  which  I  pointed  out  briefly  the  problem  of  Roumania’s  interallied
debts  appears  as  we  have  shown  higher  up  under  a  particular  aspect,  specific  to
the  conditions  of  her  war.  In  fact  the  Allied  States  who  took  part  in  the  world’s
war  can  be  groupesd  in  two  classes:  those  who  besides  their  contribution  in
men  and  money  had  a  signs  ng  front  on  their  territory,  and  those  who  were
spared  from'knowing  the  destructions  and  disasters  of  war  on  their  own  territory.
Roumania  must  be  classed  amongst  the  first  ot  the  States  who  had  to  suffer  the
consequences  of  war  on  their  national  territory,  Bucovina  was  three  times  the
theatre  of  operations,  the  sad  exodus  of  the  retreat,  the  occupation  by  the  enemy
of  two  thirds  of  her  territory  and  the  systematic  speculation  by  the  enemy’s
troops  with  prievious  experience.
Likewise  the  States  which  participated  with  a  fighting  front  on  their  national ­
  territory  can  also  be  classed  in  two  categories  according  as  they  had  to
wage  the  war  on  their  western  or  eastern  front;  the  western  front  which  was
a  front  of  Ira  rd  and  continual  fighting  was  defended  by  all  the  great  Allies  together. ­
  The  Easteru  front  further  away,  much  more  extended  and  less  tried  had
a  special  situation  by  the  presence  of  the  Russian  Empire  which  represented  one
of  the  principal  factors  to  lean  upon,  and  whose  forces  had  no  need  of  the  help
of  the  other  Allies  and  could  on  the  contrary  aford  its  own.
Roumania  by  her  geographical  situation  comes  under  the  Easteru  Front,
which  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  was  entirely  left  to  the  operations  of
the  Russian  State  and  the  Roumanian  State.
The  solidarity  between  the  Easteru  and  the  western  Front  should  have
brought  on  the  victory  of  the  Allies  and  the  presence  of  the  different  Allied
missions  besides  the  general  head  quarters  of  the  fighting  armies  had  as  an
object  the  coordination  of  the  mutual  operations.
Roumania  made  the  maximum  effort  to  put  in  fighting  order  all  her  resources ­
  in  men,  on  a  front  of  2.150  km  which  it  had  to  defend;  a  front  which
constituated  a  geographical  inferiority  and  which  could  not  be  held  without
the  help  of  the  Russian  armies.
The  events  ulterior  to  the  declaration  of  war  showed  the  way  in  which
this  participation  was  carried  on  and  how  it  ended  with  the  Russian  defection.
Roumania  found  herself  then  in  the  difficult  and  unheard  of  situation  of  a
belligerant  whose  ally  not  only  abandons  him  but  even  turns  against  him.
Roumania  who  had  felt  from  the  beginning  the  hardships  ol  her  war
when  the  help  of  her  western  Allies  in  arms  and  amunition  arrived