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sent a negative reply. After the German defeat he
had informed the British Foreign Minister Bevin
and his American colleague, Secretary Byrnes, of
all this in order to prove that Romania had done
everything in her power to stay neutral and to
avoid being drawn into the war. She had even
wished to ally herself with an anti-German
coalition, an intention which, because of the above
mentioned reasons, could not be realized. The W
estern powers themselves had rejected it.
This was the background such as it was
explained to me. But what of the situation of the day? On
my direct query the answer came immediately and
frankly: Romania was no longer free. She was
dominated by Russia. Both for the government and
for the population, the situation was more
unbearable than ever. At one time, the Germans had
taken away all the chickens. The Russians now did
the same. But at the same time they demanded that
the Romanians, despite this, should deliver eggs to
the Russian occupation forees. This was my
informant’s way of demonstrating the difference
between German and Russian methods. However, he
had one reservation. He said that, apparently,
Communism was a powerful force in the country,
but that basically all the Romanian Communists
were good patriots. In heart and soul they were
even royalists !
The head of the government, Groza, has been
characterized as a Russian puppet, and probably
there is much truth in this opinion. When we met
him we were first impressed by his kindness,
sociability, and praise for Swedish relief work. But
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