This book is concerned with three main topics. The question whether we have kept faith with the defeated enemy concerns, perhaps, the past more than the future, though it has affected the moral ties between nations for a long time to come. The problem of the indemnity, its amount, and the manner of its collection, which I treat at considerable length, is of much greater direct interest to the Western Powers than it can be to Roumania. But my third topic, which runs through the whole, namely the solidarity of Europe and the need for social and economic peace, must be of even greater interest to Roumanians than to those others of us who belong to countries of which the conditions are more stable and the prospects more secure.

Roumania within her new frontiers is a great, a populous and a fertile country. Nature has omitted none of the elements upon which man can build up happiness. But all these will be useless, as they have been in other ages of history, unless her neighbours are peaceful and prosperous, and unless she dwells in peace and sincere amity amongst them. Roumania has great opportunities. But there are those who would tempt her into false and frivolous paths. Let no thoughts of excessive empire or militarist predominance divert her from the pursuits of civilisation and of happiness. Let her avoid not less, the indulgences of extravagant government—extravagant beyond the amount of the immediately available resources.