PT Jan-67 - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives
PT Jan-67 - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives
PT Jan-67 - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives
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14 The PLAIN TRUTH<br />
Romania - L<strong>and</strong> of Contrasts!<br />
Downtown BucureJti, right top, lit up on rainy night. Cars are few <strong>and</strong> old .<br />
Romania has just completed financial deal to have French build auto plant to<br />
begin to supply Romanian urban consumer market. Below, village scene <strong>and</strong><br />
rural home. Wagon load of hay is pulled by water buffalo.<br />
PhotOJ: Romania. Ambouodor College<br />
mans, then Jews <strong>and</strong> Gypsies. Then<br />
come the Slavic-speaking peoples -<br />
Ukrainians; Serbs, Croats <strong>and</strong> Slovenes;<br />
Russians; <strong>and</strong> Czechs <strong>and</strong> Slovaks. And<br />
as if that were not enough, there are<br />
thous<strong>and</strong>s of Tartars, Turks, Bulgarians,<br />
Greeks, Albanians <strong>and</strong> Armenians!<br />
With this diversity of population,<br />
the Romanian Communist party would<br />
be forced to whip up Romanian nationalism<br />
even if there had been no<br />
strife with the USSR.<br />
Romania's Lost Territory<br />
Romanians have little love for the<br />
Russians. At the end of World War II<br />
the Soviet Union seized Bessarabia from<br />
Romania. Tens of thous<strong>and</strong>s of Romanians<br />
were forced to become Soviet<br />
citizens. The Romanian Communist<br />
Party has never forgotten it.<br />
Roman ia was the first satellite behind<br />
the Iron Curtain to drop the compulsory<br />
study of the Russian language.<br />
In 1964 Romanian scholars, tipped<br />
off by a Polish student, uncovered<br />
some long-forgotten articles written by<br />
Karl Marx, founder of Communism. In<br />
the last century, it seems, Marx condemned<br />
Czarist Russia for seizure of<br />
Bessarabia. The Rom an ian s reacquired<br />
it in 1918 - only to lose it again.<br />
Romanians, in <strong>and</strong> out of the Communist<br />
Party, are incensed, embittered<br />
over the lost territory of Bessarabia.<br />
Inside Party Headquarters<br />
In Bucur~~ti, Romania's capital, we<br />
inquired at the Government Tourist<br />
Office for photographs. We were generously<br />
given all we might use. Later,<br />
we asked one of the secretaries for information<br />
about a private photo agency.<br />
She did not know its exact whereabouts,<br />
but gave us an address. It turned out to<br />
be that of the Romanian Communist<br />
Party Headquarters. Two of our staff<br />
went in, talked to an official, but were<br />
told to return next day at noon. Our<br />
schedule called for our departure before<br />
noon next day.<br />
So next morning we all returned,<br />
walked past the guards with our cameras,<br />
headed straight for the office of<br />
the official whom we met the day before.<br />
The door was locked. Just then a<br />
Party worker walked by us, <strong>and</strong> opened<br />
the door to an adjoining room. Before<br />
he cou ld close it, we stepped in, introduced<br />
ourselves in German <strong>and</strong> asked<br />
to see the photographic files. We explained<br />
our purpose, that we were an<br />
educational institution, publish a magazine<br />
<strong>and</strong> wanted the latest pictures on<br />
the big changes taking place In Romania.<br />
At length we were asked to step<br />
down the hall into another office. All<br />
the doors were soundproofed with<br />
thick leather padding. Keys were hanging<br />
from the locks. While we looked<br />
over the photos in the files, the woman<br />
in charge kept asking how we knew<br />
about the files. We explained that we<br />
had found an address of a photographic<br />
agency in a commercial publication in<br />
West Germany, but that apparently the<br />
address had been changed <strong>and</strong> we had<br />
been directed here.<br />
"We do not advertise," she responded.<br />
"We have no photographs<br />
for sale. You cou ld not have known<br />
of us."<br />
We expIaineq it again to her, as we<br />
kept looking over the photographs.<br />
When we at last mentioned the name<br />
of the agency we were looking for, she<br />
burst out laughing. "You are in the -