HUNGER IN ROMANIA
by Horia SIMA
THE SPECTER OF HUNGER HOVERS OVER ROMANIA
AN APPEAL BY THE ROMANIAN LEGIONARY MOVEMENT TO THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WESTERN WORLD
On August 23, 1964 Roumania celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the red army occupation of its territory, and the consequent instauration of the communist regime. In Bucharest parades marched for hours, carrying thousands of flags and signs in praise of the present leaders of the Roumanian people. Communist delegations from all over the world were fraternizing around tables loaded with food, forgetting for the moment their serious ideological conflicts.
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the Secretary general of the Roumanian Communist Party, made a speech in which he presented a review of the communist regime in Roumania, covering the last two decades. The statistics offered in this speech may mislead those who will consider the situation in Roumania from a superficial point of view. Electric power, said Gheorghiu-Dej, has increased 22 times since 1938, steel production 10 times, rough iron production 14 times, and so on. If someone reads the 3 hour long speech of the Secretary general of The Roumanian Communist Party, he has the impression that the Roumanian people live in an era of happiness and abundance never experienced before, and that the realization of such a progress, impossible under the old regime, eliminates even the strongest criticism of the Communist system. All this, of course, is mere propaganda, since economic and technical progress just as big, or bigger, can be accomplished under a free political system, with free economic competition, and without any need of Communism of terror.
If we put aside statistics and technical realization, and explore instead the conditions of millions of human beings that made them possible, through their work and sacrifices, we will discover that they have been exploited to the limit of their physical and moral power, and that thousands of them are literally dying of hunger.
The industrial development of Roumania leaves its people without any benefits. The factories built all over the land are places of torture, workshops of a huge prison. Men and women have to work day and night to make a reality of the four, five, and six year-plans of the regime, without ever being able to share in the products of their labors. Everything that is produced in Roumania is exported, in order to import new machineries, which will create new industries, while the working masses must make another effort, and go through another period of hunger, in order to pay for the industrial acquisitions. This demented system of industrialization, typical of all Comministic Societies, continues like a vicious circle, the only hope of escape from it for the individual is death.
In presenting all those statistics to the foreign Communist delegations, the Secretary general of the Roumanian Communist Party forgot to mention the tribute paid in blood by the Rou manian people to their diabolical government. The reverse side of the coin on which all these factories are represented, shows instead a colossal waste of human lives. In his statistics Gherghiu-Dej forgot to present the number of those killed during the 20 years of Communist tyranny. From a social and demographic point of view, it would be interesting to know how many Roumanians died in prison as a consequence of tortures, bad treatment, and hunger, how many were condemned to death and executed, how many were executed without a trial, how many died during the terrible famine of 1946-47, how many lost their lives during the excavation of the canal from the Danube to the Black Sea in 1949-52, how many died of disease and exhaustion because of hard labor and malnutrition, how many finally, died in the concentration camps which host a permanent population of 200,000 souls. One of the constituting elements of a state is its population, and it is inadmissible for a head of state to omit it so completely in a report such as he gave on August 23, 1964.
But we understand that Gherghiu-Dej does not want to be reminded of this one statistic, and of these victims. The Secretary general of the Roumanian Communist Party does not like to con sider the social and human aspects of his regime, because in the short interval between 1944 and 1956 one million and one half Roumanians were assassinated, and since 1956 the unsatisfactory demographic evolution of Roumania indicates that the genocide continues. After 20 years of "Communist realizations" the standard of living in Roumania is so low that it cannot be compared with that of any other nation on the globe. Wages are so small that the "labor people," a term employed by the regime for every category of work or profession, cannot afford the luxury of eating twice a day: if one eats at noon, he must go to bed on an empty stomach. The food consists of potatoes, beans, and low-grade bread. Meat can be bought once a month, milk and eggs are so scarce that they almost require a prescription. Since only food of inferior nutritive value is left for national consumption, it seems that the main pre- occupation of the government is to eliminate as many calories as possible from the diet of the people, while exacting 14 hours a day of hard and exhausting labor from the same underfed population. Communist economy is a diabolic one, it leaves for the people only the crumbs that are left over from the banquet of the "new class".
Unscrupulous newspapermen, sometimes paid with Communist international funds, write in responsible newspapers of the West about the "decent" life of the Roumanian people. Life in Roumania is not "decent", nor is it endurable, it is an infernal life. These unscrupulous newspapermen dishonor their noble profession, which has always been at the service of truth, and thus become accomplices to the tyrants of the Roumanian people. Rournania, like all other enslaved nations, is governed today by a race of monsters, who appear to enjoy human suffering, and whose historical vocation seems to be the usage of crime as a principle of government.
Loud applauses interrupted Gheorghiu-Dej's speech, when he mentioned the Soviet technical and economic aid to Roumania, which made possible the "accomplishments" of the regime. He for got to mention that Roumania paid eleven times the 300 million Dollars war debt quota to the Soviet Union, and that Roumania was forced to sell her raw materials, her agricultural, and her industrial products to the Soviet Union at a price much below international market, losing in the process billions of Dollars, literally taken away from the mouth of the people. During the 20 years of Soviet domination the value of Roumanian goods sent to Russia without compensation amount to more than 10 billion Dollars.
Famine in Roumania is not a sporadic factor. In 1946-47 the Communist authorities were saying that hunger was caused by the economic chaos which resulted from World War II. After Stalin's death, the blame for the deplorable situation in Roumania was given to him. But at this very moment, 10 years after his death, the situation is even worse. Who is responsible for this? We say that starvation in Roumania is organized by its government, who by his methods of collectivism has completely ruined the agriculture of the country, and sells 90% of the products of a starved nation, to other countries.
The most horrible aspect of this tragedy is the dangerous effect of malnutrition on the children. Roumanian children have forgotten how to laugh and play, they simply do not have the energy to do so. They make their acquaintance with hunger in their very first year of life. Mothers with dry busoms cannot provide milk for them, and milk can more and more rarely be found on the market.
The Roumanian people are not asking you today for political changes, they know that they have been abandoned by the Western World, and that any declaration made in their favor is just empty words, all they ask for is milk, milk for their children, who are dying because they are denied this precious liquid. Such a providential gift will certainly not incommodate the Western World economic- ally, and will not expose it to the danger of a nuclear war.
We ask of you, humanitarian and charitable associations, of you, leagues of human rights, of the Red Cross, of religious associ- ations, and of Christian governments, who have a surplus of milk, begin this campaign to save from death the children of Roumania, by sending to them as much milk as you can spare. Think of the undescribable suffering of the Roumanian parent who cannot pro- vide a cup of milk for his children. Think of those little devitamin- ized bodies, of those transparent little hands, who reach out in vain for a glass of milk. In the name of the Roumanian people who can- not today express their sufferings, we appeal to all men of good will, and we ask you to take part in a special battle, the "battle of the milk", for the salvation of the children of Roumania. Do not be misled by propaganda. With the exception of a few cities, situated in regions accessible to tourists, all of Roumania lies in dire poverty. If our accusations are contested, we ask for the formation of an International Commission whose duty would be to investigate the conditions of life in Roumania. The children of Roumania do not envy the beautiful clothes or the expensive toys of the western children, they envy them because they can drink milk. All they want from the Western world is milk, which they ask in the memory of those children who died of hunger and exhaustion, during the First Crusade, before they could reach Jerusalem.
Of those of you who will go to Roumania as tourists, we ask that you bring with you some cans of milk, and that you give them to a child. This will be the best propaganda in favor of the Western world.
We have also a request to make to the governments and to the great import companies. If you cannot resist the temptation of trading with the Communist world, thinking perhaps that the best way to combat the enemy is to help him to develop himself, at least limit your import from Roumania to industrial products and to raw materials. Do not buy agricultural products, agricultural products do not come from a surplus, they are literally taken away from the mouth of the Roumanian people, who work all year like slaves without even the hope of enjoying their own harvest. No government in the world sells what it does not have, with the exception of the Communists who condemn a whole nation to permanent starvation in order to have something to export. These products are mingled with tears, blood, and maledictions, if you use them, you condemn to death thousands of human beings who need them and a country who wishes to be respected has na right to trade with products that are indispensable to the very survival of the nation.
Send milk to Roumania, as much as you can spare. With your cans of condensed milk you can save from death tens of thousands of children. These cans will be for the Roumanian people just as providential as the biblical Manna, which saved the Hebrew people in the desert. Milk has become an obsession for the Roumanian father, who sometimes tries to steal it from the government's store, facing as much as seven years of prison for a quart of milk.
The importance of milk in nutrition is well known throughout the world, how can a child survive if he is denied this essential food in his first years of life? We do not wish to offend anybody, and we are not trying to be demagogues. What we ask is essential to the very existence of our nation. The world is admiring today the "rebellion" of Gheorghiu-Dej, and his "break" with Moscow. We would prefer a little less talk about his form of nationalism, and a little more milk for the children.
People of the Western World, do not be indifferent to our sufferings. Your fate is tied to ours. When we will have been destroyed by this apocalyptic beast, it will be your turn. Now you have the opportunity to exercise tremendous pressure on the government of Bucharest, by refusing to buy goods that are literally stolen from the necessity of the people, and by participating in this "battle" for the milk to the children of Roumania. Perhaps with your action you will be able to compel the Roumanian Communist government to take better care of its people. We must now warn you that we have absolutely no means of delivering the milk that you will generously donate. Therefore each organization must find a way to assure the distribution of its contributions to the people. Be very careful in your dealings with the Roumanian Communist government and make sure that your contributions will reach the people and not the government who will send them to the various parts of the world, in Asia, Africa, and South America, where the Communist movement is working underground.
Contrary to all expectations, in his speech commemorating 20 years of communist regime, Gheorghiu-Dej did not make any promises of easing the situation, and the same pattern of life, of terror and hunger, will continue in Roumania.
The responsibility of the Western World is growing. Any solution which may bring a distension between East and West, but will not take into consideration the rights of the enslaved nations, will have as ultimate result the complete destruction of western civilization.
September 6, 1964
HORIA SIMA
PRINTED IN WINDSOR,
CANADA