tance is in their hands. One
of the present ministers entered the cabinet a poor man; to-day he is
reputed to be worth twenty millions. Anything can be purchased in
Rumania--passports, exemption from military service, cabinet portfolios,
commercial concessions--if you have the money to pay for it. The fingers
of Rumanian officials are as sticky as those of the Turks. An officer of
the American Relief Administration told me that barely sixty per cent,
of the supplies sent from the United States for the relief of the
Rumanian peasantry ever reached those for whom they were intended; the
other forty per cent, was kept by various officials. To find a parallel
for the political corruption which exists throughout Rumania it is
necessary to go back to New York under the Tweed administration or to
Mexico under the Diaz regime.

From a wealthy Hungarian landowner, with whom I traveled from Bucharest
to the frontier of Jugoslavia, I obtained a graphic idea of what can be
accomplished by money in Rumania. This young Hungarian, who had been
educated in England and spoke with a Cambridge accent, possessed large
estates in northeastern Hungary. After four years' service as an officer
of cavalry he was demobilized upon the signing of the Armistice. When
the revolution led by Bela Kun broke out in Budapest he escaped from
that city on foot, only to be arrested by the Rumanians as he was
crossing the Rumanian frontier. Fortunately for him, he had ample funds
in his possession, obtained from the sale of the cattle on his estate,
so that he was able to purchase his freedom after spending only three
days in jail. But his release did not materially improve his situation,
for he had no passport and, as Hungary was then under Bolshevist rule,
he was unable to obtain one. And he realized that without a passport it
would be impossible for him to join his wife and children, who were
awaiting him in Switzerland. As luck would have it, however, he was
slightly acquainted with the prefect of a small town in
Transylvania--for obvious reasons I shall not mention its name--which he
finally reached after great difficulty, traveling by night and lying
hidden by day so as to avoid being halted and questioned by the Rumanian
patrols. By paying the prefect 1,000 francs and giving him and his
friends a dinner at the local hotel, he obtained a certificate stating
that he was a citizen of the town and in good standing with the local
authorities. Armed with th