From Russia I did not demand a single meter, but Rumania neglected the
favorable moment. The protection of mercantile shipping in the lower
Danube and the guarding of the Iron Gate are guaranteed by the extension
of the frontier to the heights of Turnu-Severin, by leasing for thirty
years a valuable wharf near this town, together with a strip along the
river bank at an annual rental of 1,000 lei, and, finally, by obtaining
the leasing rights to the islands of Ostrovo, Marecorbu, and Simearu,
and the transfer of the frontier several kilometers southward in the
region of the Petroseny coal mine, which better safeguards our
possessions in the Szurdok Pass coal basin.
Nagy-Szeben and Fogaras will receive a new security frontier of an
average width of from 15 to 18 kilometers at all passes of importance,
as, for instance, Predeal, Bodz, Gyimes, Bekas, and Tolgyes. The new
frontier has been so far removed to Rumanian ground as military reasons
require.
The rectification east of Czernowitz has protected that city against
future attacks.
At the moment when we are successfully endeavoring to renew friendly and
neighborly relations with Rumania, it is unlikely that we would open old
wounds, but every one knows the history of Rumania's entrance into the
war and will admit that it was my duty to protect the monarchy against
future surprises of a similar kind.