740.00119 EW 1939/9–244
Declaration of New Rumanian Government in Broadcast on August 23, 1944, Over Radio Romania81
The Government which today represents the country formed by four political parties, i.e., the National-Liberal, the National-Peasant, the Communist and the Social Democrat parties, all four united in a national democrat block, has been empowered by His Majesty King Michael I to take over the conduct of the State in the most difficult and decisive circumstances, for the destiny of the Rumanian people. The dictatorial regime which up to now constantly violated the will of the country has placed in danger, by its fatal policy, the very existence of Rumania as a State.
Today, dictatorship has been replaced and the people recover their rights. The political regime which we establish will be a democratic regime wherein public freedom will be both respected and guaranteed. The first measures taken by the Government in the foreign policy field of action have been the acceptance of the armistice terms of the United Nations.
The representatives of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States have guaranteed Rumania’s independence within the frame of respected national sovereignty, as well as the non-intervention in our life as a State.
Our exit from the war, at the side of the Tripartite Pact,82 as well as the cessation of hostilities against the Soviet Union are decisions which aim at sparing our country an otherwise certain catastrophe.
Beginning today Rumania considers the United Nations as friendly nations.
The fact that the representatives of Moscow, London and Washington have recognized the injustice caused to Rumania by the Vienna Dictate creates the possibility for the Rumanian Army to free Northern Transylvania from foreign occupation.
From now on we understand to be masters of our destiny.
The decision to denounce the alliance treaties with the Axis powers and the decreeing of the end of the war with the United Nations is the expression of all the Rumanian people. This decision does not injure the right of any foreign State and does not touch the interests of other nations. The entire country desires to put an end to a terrible war, a war lost in advance; the entire country desires peace; [Page 192] but Rumania’s desire for peace means neither disarmament nor fear. Any impediment for the realization of this desire for peace and for the freedom of the Rumanian people will unloosen a merciless struggle on the part of all the armed forces of the people against those who will try to maintain our country in a state of war against the United Nations, thus prolonging the useless and vain sufferings.
In addressing itself to you, citizens of this country, the Government asks you to rally around His Majesty the King Michael I in the spirit of a perfect union and national discipline, to give him all aid for the realization of the supreme call of the present moment, in order to insure peace and to install a democratic regime, right for everybody and public freedom for all the citizens of the country.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Consul General at Istanbul in his despatch 3462 (R–3169), September 2; received September 13.↩
- Signed at Berlin, September 27, 1940, by Germany, Italy, and Japan, Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series D, vol. xi, p. 204. Regarding adherence of Rumania to the pact, see Editors’ Note, ibid., p. 208. For correspondence regarding the pact, see Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, pp. 164 ff., and Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. i, pp. 647 ff.↩