o the
liberal intentions entertained by the Powers, and taking note of the
positive assurances to that effect which have been conveyed to them, the
Government of Her Britannic Majesty, being desirous of giving to the
Roumanian nation a proof of their friendly sentiments, have decided to
recognize the Principality of Roumania as an independent State. Her
Majesty's Government consequently declare themselves ready to enter
into regular diplomatic relations with the Prince's Government.

In bringing the decision come to by his Government to the knowledge of
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Undersigned, &c.

W. A. WHITE.

BUCHAREST, _February 20, 1880_.

(_Ibid._, p. 1187.)

* * * * *

(_g_) RUMANIA AND THE POWERS (1902).

It must be confessed--and, indeed, it has been avowed by prominent
Rumanians themselves[40]--that Rumania's evasion of the Treaty of Berlin
has been a monument of resourceful duplicity and bad faith. Accomplished
by pretending to regard the native Jews as foreigners, it actually
placed them in a far worse position than they had held in 1858, when at
any rate their national character as Moldavians or Wallachians was not
contested. But, not only have they been refused emancipation and stamped
as foreigners, but, in their character of foreigners, without a State to
protect them, they have been made the victims of special and cruel
disabilities, which in practice do not and cannot affect other
foreigners.

One peculiarly barbarous act of persecution of this kind which was
attempted in 1902 nearly brought about a serious intervention by the
Great Powers to compel Rumania to observe her Treaty obligations. An Act
was passed by the Rumanian Parliament forbidding foreigners to exercise
any handicraft in Rumania unless Rumanians were assured similar
privileges in the parent States of such foreigners. The result of this
Act would have been to deprive all the Jewish artizans in Rumania of the
means of earning their livelihood, as, being foreigners without a parent
State of their own, they could not prove the reciprocity required by the
law. Prompt steps were taken to bring this project to the notice of the
Great Powers, chiefly by the late Lord Rothschild in London and Mr.
Jacob Schiff in Washington. Lord Rothschild was the first to move. In
June 1901 he forwarded to His Majesty's Government an elaborate
Memorandum setting forth the intolerable situation of the Rumanian