rubbing shoulders with the plenipotentiaries every day.  But M. Bratiano’s existence and that of his fellow-delegate was systematically ignored.  It is not easy to fathom the motives that inspired this supercilious treatment of the spokesman of a nation which was sacrificing its sons in the service of the Allies as well as its own.  Personal antipathy, however real, cannot be assumed without convincing grounds to have been the mainspring.

But there was worse than the contemptuous treatment of a colleague who was also the chief Minister of a friendly state.  If an order was to be given to the Rumanian government to recall its forces from the front which they occupied, elementary courtesy and political tact as well as plain common sense would have suggested its being communicated, in the first instance, to the chief of that government—­who was then resident in Paris—­as head of his country’s delegation to the Conference.  But that was not the course taken.  The statesmen of the Secret Council had recourse to the radio, and, without consulting M. Bratiano, despatched a message “to the government in Bucharest” enjoining on it the withdrawal of the Rumanian army.  For they were minded scrupulously to redeem their promise to the Bolshevists.  One need not be a diplomatist to realize the amazement of “the Rumanian government” on receiving this abrupt behest.  The feelings of the Premier, when informed of these underhand doings, can readily be imagined.  And it is no secret that the temper of a large section of the Rumanian people was attuned by these petty freaks to sentiments which boded no good to the cause for which the Allies professed to be working.  In September M. Bratiano was reported as having stigmatized the policy adopted by the Conference toward Rumania as being of a “malicious and dangerous character."[149]

The frontier to which the troops were ordered to withdraw had, as we saw, just been assigned to Rumania[150] without the assent of her government, and with a degree of secrecy and arbitrariness that gave deep offense, not only to her official representatives, but also to those parliamentarians and politicians who from genuine attachment or for peace’ sake were willing to go hand in hand with the Entente.  “If one may classify the tree by its fruits,” exclaimed a Rumanian statesman in my hearing, “the great Three are unconscious Bolshevists.  They are undermining respect for authority, tradition, plain, straightforward dealing, and, in the case of Rumania, are behaving as though their staple aim were to detach our nation from France and the Entente.  And this aim is not unattainable.  The Rumanian people were heart and soul with the French, but the bonds which were strong a short while ago are being weakened among an influential section of the people, to the regret of all Rumanian patriots.”