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Show Rumania Is Economic Plum of Balkans Because of Rich Oil and Grain Resources 1 and nearly 'two-thirds of Its present territory as a result of treaties after the World war of 1914-18. Many of the "foreigners" "foreign-ers" have retained their natural customs, resulting in numerous alien "Islands." Million Germans Trade, especially In northern Rumania, la chiefly In the hands of nearly one million Jews. More than a million and a half Hungarians Hun-garians and nearly a million Germans Ger-mans live in western and central cen-tral Rumania. In the northern and eastern sections are about half a million Rutheniana, 100,-000 100,-000 Russians, the same number of Turks and 200,000 Tatars. East meets west In Rumania. Mosques, minarets and fezzes give the appearance of a Turkish Turk-ish town to Baldc, a port on the Black sea. Ill regions of Rumania Ru-mania adjoining Bulgaria have settled about 300,000 Bulgarians, and the same number of gypsies form a colorful foreign element Many of the gypsies are actors. Some sell flowers in the cities, while others roam the country as musicians, occasionally accompanied accom-panied by trained bears. Braila, the home town of the writer of gypsy tales, Conrad Bercovid, is one of the oldest gypsy settlements. WASHINGTON, D. C. Rumania, Ru-mania, headlined again by the news of her premier's assassination, assassina-tion, holds a key position In the turbulent affairs of the Balkan peninsula with her rich resources of oil and grain and the polyglot mixture of her population. Fuel for machines and food for humans both spring in abundance abun-dance from Rumania's soil, and access to them is of first Importance Impor-tance to many nations, says a bulletin from the Washington, D. C headquarters of the National Na-tional Geographic aociety. Within the confines of the country, about the size of Arizona, Ari-zona, live some 19.000.000 people, peo-ple, but nearly one-third of them are non-Rumanians. The 13,-000,000 13,-000,000 Rumanians trace their ancestry to Roman colonists who intermarried with the Inhabitants Inhabi-tants of the region. The other 4,000,000 Include Germans, Jews, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Russians, Rus-sians, Jugoslavs, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Armenians, Greeks, Turks, . Tatars and gypsies. Big Oil Producer Germany, France and England all recently have been displaying display-ing Interest la Rumania through trade agreements or political negotiations, ne-gotiations, and one of the chief reasons for this Interest Is oiL Rumania Is second only to the U. S. S. R. as a European producer pro-ducer of oil and other petroleum products. During the World war. when German armies overwhelmed Rumanian defenaes and took ever a large part of the country, the Rumanian oil wells were ' wrecked and workmen capable of repairing them evacuated. The Industry has been rebuilt and Rumania now Is sixth among the world's oil-producing nations. Grain comes next to oil on the . list of raw materials that make Rumania important Americans would feel at home in many parte of the country, for they would see broad acres of Indian corn. Introduced from the new world. Corn has become the staple food of the Rumanian peasant eaten in a form of mush. Mineral Resources, Tee Wheat on the other hand. Is an important crop in northwestern northwest-ern Rumania, in Transylvania, acquired from Hungary after the World war of 1914-18. Besides grain. Rumania supplies timber to the international trade. Salt Is mined in the north near Bucovina, Buco-vina, from deposits worked by the. ancient Romans. Zinc, copper. cop-per. Iron and lead are other mineral resources. Sheep and cattle are exported. Germany took the largest proportion pro-portion of Rumanian exports, about 29 per cent in 1938. with Great Britain second, while Czecho-Slovakia, before Its dismemberment dis-memberment was third. A third of Rumania's 1938- imports were from Germany. In return fur raw materials, Rumania's industrialized indus-trialized customers send her manufactured goods, machinery, steel, rubber and automobiles. American trade with Rumania is of minor Importance. . Rumania acquired about half of Us heterogeneous population. |