Draft:Repatriation of the representatives of Romania who took refuge in southern Russia (1918)

In 1917, a number of Romanian representatives took refuge in southern Russia. The repatriation of those representatives refers to the series of events that took place in southern Russia (especially in Odesa) during the First World War, in the first months of 1918, whose victims were the leaders of Romanian refugees (parliamentarians, officers, landowners, industrialists) evacuated due to occupying a large part of the Romanian territory following the 1916 military campaign, which were arrested by the Bolsheviks of Odesa and later repatriated in 1918, on the ships Împăratul Traian, Dacia and finally Cernoe more, as a result of the agreements occurred between the Romanian government and Rumcherod (Averescu-Rakovsky Agreement) with the contribution of the Canadian colonel Joseph Boyle. For the most part, testimonies of those directly involved in events are presented.

Context

The first page of the Military Convention between Romania and the Allies of World War I, a secret agreement signed on the same day as the Alliance Treaty between Romania and the Entente

After two years of neutrality, the Kingdom of Romania joined the Entente powers in the Great War on August 27, 1916, declaring war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Kingdom won a series of quick victories in Transylvania, but that autumn underwent a series of crushing defeats, until holding the capital was unsustainable. The Romanian government evacuated Bucharest for a rump government in Iași, while the Central Powers occupied most of the Old Kingdom. Chaos in the rail system inhibited supply and redeployment along the Romanian front, and made further retreat impossible.

To stabilize the situation, the Russians reinforced in Moldova, but the Iași government worried that their erstwhile ally might turn on them. Adding to these fears, the Russian command requested control of the Romanian army during the evacuation, and consent to a larger field of manoeuver behind them. According to former deputy and minister Ion G. Duca, "the Russians treated with us as though superiors." After the Russian troop surge "actually occupied most of the front, they made all kinds of demands, which put our very national sovereignty at stake."

A secret agreement, signed concurrent to Romania's entry into the war, obliged the Entente countries to supply 300 tons per day of munitions and other materiel at cost. These supplies were soon joined by General Henri Berthelot's French Military Mission, trainers who sought to transform the remnants of the Kingdom's army into a viable combat force, but also accentuated fears of foreign takeover. The Romanians "suspect[ed] the Russians of hidden intentions[;] among other things, of the desire to seize the large quantities of French weapons shipped to Romania via Russia."

Refugees in Iași faced overcrowded housing, little food, the winter cold, and a brewing sanitary crisis. One wrote:

With the exception of the children, we have all had to submit to inoculation against cholera and typhoid. Jassy before the war was a quiet university town of seventy thousand; now the population is over a million. No wonder starvation and disease are rife. In addition to the civil population, Russian troops are passing through Jassy by thousands. They are in fine uniforms and good boots, lead stout, well-fed horses and sing as they march. Some are encamped near Sf—ta. Sava, and have cows with them and plenty of food not so our people. The other day as I came up the main street I saw a shadowy figure of a man leaning against a fence; even as I looked he slid to the ground. A couple of—passing men stooped over him. "Saracu (poor thing) — starved to death!"

Unreasoning fear of spotted fever (typhus) has me in its grip. It is carried by fleas, and no one can escape being bitten in Jassy. The infected insects were brought here by the Mongolian trench-diggers who came with the Russian troops. About 1 per cent of those infected ever recover.

It is the coldest winter known for fifty years. Many times since the first shocking sight I have seen poor unfortunates sink down upon the snow in the broad daylight — never to rise again! It is common to see old men, dragging their feet wrapped in sacking padded with straw over the icy pavements, search (very often in vain) for crusts and bones thrown away by someone more fortunate than they. It is despairing to be surrounded with such suffering without the means of alleviating it. What a sordid thing is this unvarnished struggle for existence!

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

In the latter half of 1917, the Central Powers's advance had restricted the supply lines of for the Romanian Front and the civilian population of Western Moldavia to a single railway line that crossed southern Russia (modern Ukraine) towards Iași. Captain George Alexander Hill's later report on the situation described a Russian logistical failure, "which had brought the [Romanian] country to the brink of starvation."

Involvement of British Allied agents

Joseph Whiteside Boyle

Three British agents, Raymond de Candolle, Joe Boyle, and later George Alexander Hill, arrived in Romania in 1917, hoping to improve the situation. Boyle, a Canadian, also represented the American Company of Engineers through connections made during the Yukon Gold Rush. Shortly after arriving, Boyle began to investigate the situation in southern Russia and Romania, traveling first to Odesa and then to Iași, where he met de Candolle.

Queen Marie of Romania visiting a hospital in 1917

Together with the South Western Group at Odesa, Boyle and Candolle developed a plan for temporary new rail lines and port facilities at the northern end of Lake Yalpuh. Light-draft boats could then traverse the lake with supplies portaged directly from the Black Sea. According to Boyle, the system, upon completion, delivered about 500 tons/day to Romania for several months. The railway mission, and Boyle himself, soon had the avid interest of Queen Marie of Romania, the English-speaking granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She had wanted to join Boyle and de Candolle in some of their travels, but King Ferdinand thought it too dangerous.

In August 1917, Boyle was recalled to Russia; he was at the Russian military headquarters, Stavka, when the Bolsheviks seized power. At Stavka, Boyle also met George Hill. Boyle, Hill, and de Candolle shared an uncharacteristic response to Lenin's seizure of power: "co-operation with the Bolsheviks was the best means of serving the Allied cause," because it ensured uninterrupted supply to Romania.

Adolf Abramovich Ioffe, the leader of the Military Revolutionary Committee in Petrograd

With this in mind, they travelled to Petrograd (modern St. Petersburg) on 27 October, where they held talks with Adolf Ioffe, chair of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, and then Lenin. At that moment, the key to all of Russia's supply problems was a terribly congested circum-Moscovian rail line; Lenin granted them plenipotentiary powers to sort out Moscow's railways. In Moscow, they met Nikolai Muralov, military commander of the city, who gave them "complete liberty of action within the area of hundreds of junction lines, loading platforms and shunting sidings which formed the Moscow railway knot". Resorting to drastic action like pitching whole trains over embankments, they "cleared the congested knot in two days."

Boyle, now regularly supported by Hill, took up the issue of supplying Romania. After the armistice between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers had been signed on 5 December, and the order to demobilize the Russian Army issued on 7 December, Boyle and Hill decided they no longer had a clear role in Russia and that it would be best to return to Romania.

In those days, Romania's independence was indeed threatened. Moving the government to Crimea, in Poltava or Kherson, was seriously considered, and the Russians were preparing, with open enthusiasm, a palace for the royal family, while the Romanian army was supposed to be displaced to Russia and from there transported by the British navy to the Western Front. If this strange migration had taken place, Romania would have found itself in the aberrant position of a country without a territory, without leadership, and without an army, and it would have been impossible for it to make any demands at the end of the war. The major rationale for the country's entrance into the war, after two years of neutrality, was exactly to recover those territories that were predominantly Romanian.

The King, at the Queen's insistence, refused to leave the territory of his country no matter how small and impoverished it had become, and, in addition, he refused to sign a peace treaty with Germany; when his government signed, he found all kinds of subterfuges to delay its ratification. Thus, Germany's hostility became manifest through several attempts to eliminate the royal couple, either through assassination, deportation, replacement, and/or through a secret collaboration with the Bolsheviks who were trying to instigate the fall of the monarchy in Romania. Through his involvement in Romanian politics, Boyle contributed to Romania's political stability by ensuring the coherence guaranteed by the monarchy's survival.

Later, Boyle and his coworkers helped conclude the conflict between Romania and Russia. Nevertheless, their treaty signed at Odesa (the Averescu–Rakovsky Agreement) did not survive the German occupation of Romania and Ukraine in spring 1918.

Events on the Eastern Front

The situation on the Eastern Front between November 1916 and January 1917

Pacifism, increasingly present among Russian troops, is the consequence of the famous Order no. 1, document voted on in the first days of the Russian February Revolution. The establishment of soldiers' committees, vested with the same authority as officers', led to the disappearance of all discipline among the Russian army. It went so far as to put the soldiers to vote on whether or not to carry out the officers' orders. In the mentality of the Russian peasant-soldier at the front, the idea of ending the war as quickly as possible, in order to return home and divide the land from the landlords, takes root. On the Romanian front, around the resumption of military operations, Russian soldiers were more concerned with the hectic political life in Russia than with the chances of success of an offensive. With such an army, a senior Romanian officer stated, absolutely nothing could be achieved. The proof is the failure of the offensive launched on the Galicia front in June 1917, the last large-scale operation launched by the Russian army during the First World War. A failure all the more painful as this offensive aimed precisely at reviving morale at the front, showing the world that Russia can still fight. The political consequences were immediate: a failed coup and a new prime minister at the head of the Provisional Government in Petrograd. At the demonstrations held by the Russian soldiers in the towns of Moldova, they chanted not only in favor of peace, but even against King Ferdinand. "Heated by their revolution, the Russians left the worries of the front against the Germans and the Austro-Hungarians and want to make a revolution here too".

After the failure of the offensive launched on the front in Galicia, the hasty retreat of the Russians and the recapture of Bukovina by the Austro-Hungarian troops put the Romanian army in danger of being caught between two fronts. The situation was desperate.

When the Bolsheviks take power in Petrograd through a coup d'état and propose to the Central Powers the immediate conclusion of an armistice, in order to negotiate a separate peace, the situation in Romania changes completely, being forced, in the end, to accept a separate peace, because, as General Berthelot, head of the French Military Mission to Romania, testifies, "her forces are insufficient to hold out alone against the German and Austrian divisions which are on the Eastern front. On the other hand, Romania depends on southern Russia for supplies, and the first concern of the Russians will be to stop the shipment of food"

The pressure was maximum: a group of Bolsheviks was trying, in those days, to arrest the commander of the Russian troops on the Romanian front - General Dmitry Shcherbachev. In a few hours there was a risk that the Bolsheviks would "be masters of Iași, the king and the government". Although a conflict with the Bolsheviks risked leading to the loss of the treasure evacuated in Moscow, to reprisals against the Romanian refugees in Odesa and Kherson, as well as to the interruption of supplies from Russia, the solution of the fight with the Bolsheviks is adopted, "because it drops the form of government of the country, the Dynasty and the honour of our obligations towards the Allies and the weak hope, but ultimately the hope, of maintaining our front, of the Russian front in the country, which prevents the devastating withdrawal of Russian troops in rampant". Consequently, the Romanian government decides to take vigorous measures against acts of disorder and robbery, considering that they are committed not by "Russians, but by bandits, against whom armed force will be used and who will immediately be brought before the Court Martial, to be tried and convicted within 24 hours". Therefore, the Romanian troops proceeded to disarm those who were leaving the front, and clashes with the Russians were recorded, the most important being the battle of Galați. In this way, the devastation that terrified Romanian society was put to an end".

Events in Bessarabia

The overthrow of the Romanovs led, in March 1917, to the emergence of the Moldavian National Party, dedicated to the cause of freedom and a Bessarabian union. On 29 July the Central Army Committee, established back in April, called a Military Congress and this congress eventually assembled on 5–9 November, just as the Bolsheviks seized power. The nine hundred delegates present voted for autonomy and summoned an assembly, the "Sfatul Țării". The membership of the "Sfatul Țării" was chosen, rather like the case with the Russian pre-parliament of October 1917, through indirect elections via workers’ and peasants’ committees and professional organizations: its democratic credentials, therefore, were open to question. This, however, did not prevent it acting with determination when it assembled on 21 November. With 138 members, its vice-chair was Pantelimon Halippa and it declared Bessarabia to be autonomous within Russia on 2 December; it also gave itself the power to introduce a land reform and establish self-defence units The Moldavian Democratic Republic was formally declared on 15 December. One reason for the haste in declaring autonomy was the announcement by the Ukrainian Rada in August that Bessarabia was part of its proposed state

A week after it was formed, on 21 December, the newly formed autonomous government of Bessarabia sent a delegation to Iași to request help "restoring order", but the Romanian Government initially refused. However, the national autonomists were not the only group calling for Romanian troops to be deployed in Bessarabia. The Romanian Government also found itself under pressure from Dmitry Shcherbachev, who wanted to secure supply lines which he felt to be at risk. Ultimately it was the growing threat of military disorder which persuaded Romanian Prime-minister Brătianu to agree to deploy some Romanian troops to Bessarabia. Bolshevik activists had responded to these moves with direct action. Although a fairly influential soviet existed in Chișinău, it was too weak to take decisive action against the nationalists. So, the Bolsheviks turned instead to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Romanian Front (Rum), Black Sea Fleet (Cher) and Odesa District (Od), or Rumcherod, an organization they had controlled since elections held earlier in December. On 28 December, the Action Committee of Romanian revolutionary exiles established a Romanian Military Revolutionary Committee, which Rumcherod then allocated three battalions of troops recruited from Romanian PoWs and Romanian Army units stationed in the south. These were the forces preparing for revolutionary war against Romania, and this was the crisis Brătianu hoped Boyle and Hill could help resolve.

On 1 January 1918, Constantin Diamandi, the Romanian ambassador to Russia, had been arrested and thrown into the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul with all his staff. After a protest from the Diplomatic Corps, Diamandi was released the next day. Diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and Romania were broken at the same time that Diamandi was released from prison. The Soviet mood was expressed in an appeal issued at the time and recalled later by Antonov-Ovseenko, secretary of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in his memoirs: "the Romanian workers and labouring peasantry, crushed by the yoke of boyars and capital, were awaiting our help, their militias were acting jointly with our revolutionary forces in the interest of justice and freedom and world-wide brotherhood". On 3 January 1918, Rumcherod declared itself the supreme authority both in Bessarabia and on the Romanian Front and took measures to stop any advance by the Romanian Army. A revolutionary war had begun.

In the initial fighting, Bolshevik forces occupied Chișinău and dispersed the "Sfatul Țării" on 4 January 1918. Its leaders escaped arrest and appealed to Iași for support. As a result, the Romanian Army sent a division of troops into the region and drove the Bolsheviks out of the Bessarabian capital a week later, restoring the "Sfatul Țării" to power. The Moldavian Democratic Republic of Bessarabia was declared an independent state on 24 January and looked forward to union with Romania.

Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov

According to the memoirs of Antonov-Ovseenko, around January 29, Rumcherod approached him to ask for help. He recommended the appointment of Mikhail Muravyov to command the Soviet forces in this new revolutionary war with the Romanians. Muravyov had just triumphed in Ukraine, leading Soviet forces that destroyed the Ukrainian army in January 1918 and installed a Soviet government in Ukraine in early February.

Intense fighting took place throughout February. On February 5, a major confrontation took place between three revolutionary battalions, supported by other Soviet units and the Romanian Army. The revolutionaries successfully defended the town of Bender, on the Iași-Odesa railway, southeast of occupied Chișinău. The Romanians attacked again on February 23 near Rîbnița and pushed the Soviet forces across the Dniester. However, Muravyov's appointment led to a counterattack. This began on 24 February and was followed by fierce clashes near Slobodka on 26 February. The Romanians had more than one division, attacking from both the south and the northeast, but Muravyov crushed them, seized fifteen pieces of artillery, and the Romanians retreated across the Dniester.

Behind the scenes of the Averescu-Rakovsky treaty signing

The building on Torgovaya Street in Odesa that housed the headquarters of the Odesa Red Guards in 1918

However, the key figure in Odesa was not Muravyov, but Rakovsky, the head of Rumcherod, and Boyle and Hill soon had permission to talk to him. Ahead of these talks, Boyle brought together all the Allied representatives still in Odesa and won their support for his approach to Rakovsky and the Odesa Soviet. The decision of the Ukrainian Rada to sign a peace treaty with the Central Powers on 28 January, and the collapse of the armistice between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers a week later on 18 February were transforming the situation, opening up Ukraine to occupation by the Central Powers.

In these talks, Bessarabia was the sticking point: „Rakovsky wished the Romanians to evacuate the country immediately, and we on our side urged that they could not be expected to do so until they had been able to evacuate their stores”, Hill recalled. The talks lasted five days and were still going on at 5 am on the final day when, at 6 am, an exhausted Rakovsky finally signed the peace proposal on 23 February. An armistice of three days was then agreed, and a car and then a plane took Boyle to Iași. The Romanians were at first unwilling to sign and „it was days before they finally did so". In the end, except for a few alterations, the Romanian Government agreed and Boyle was flown back to Odesa.

The Treaty of Odesa was signed by Rakovsky on 9 March and the agreement made clear that the Romanian Army would withdraw from Bessarabia within two months. Boyle then returned to Iași once more, on 10 March, to make final preparations for implementing the treaty, in particular finalizing the exchange of prisoners which accompanied it.

Events in southern Russia

The difficult situation in which Romania found itself in the second half of 1917, when the capital Bucharest and two thirds of the territory had been occupied by the armies of the Central Powers, the need to evacuate the institutions that could symbolize the existence of the Romanian state, such as the parliament, ministries and banks, had arisen. It was to be avoided that the parliamentarians would end up under the occupation of the enemy, in order not to give them the possibility of legislating the new situation, through a possible vote obtained "under rape".

In Petrograd, an interdepartmental commission, under the leadership of a Russian senator, was tasked with establishing the evacuation measures for the unoccupied Romanian territory. The Russians even open a credit line for the needs of Romanian refugees, allocating three million rubles. For Brătianu, the royal family and Berthelot, the idea of Romania becoming a state without territory was inadmissible, given that Russian politics inspired them with little confidence. For the authorities in Iași, the prospect of a peace that would find them not only without country and army, but also with the king and the government at the mercy of the Russians, was not at all inviting.

As early as mid-December 1916, the imperial authorities allowed "the free and immediate access of Romanian refugees to the territory of Bessarabia without any formality". The evacuation of 30,000 wounded, as well as an important number of factories and institutions from Bucharest, Iași, Brăila and Galaţi to the southern part of Russia, especially to Odesa, Kherson and Kiliia, was thus agreed. Along with the temporarily transferred factories came the workers who served them. Thus, they were evacuated to Odesa the Naval Shipyard "G. Fernic & Co." from Galați, a military aviation school, patients and medical staff from several hospitals (Galați doctor Alexandru Carnabel was the head of the Odesa hospitals)). The Arsenal of the Romanian Navy had been transferred to Kherson, and most of the Romanian merchant and passenger fleet was anchored in various ports in southern Russia. In Odesa, Kherson and Rostov on Don, Romanian high schools were opened for the children of refugee families, newspapers were published in Romanian, the big Romanian banks had branches here, and some merchants established commercial enterprises. Thus, real Romanian colonies appeared in the cities of southern Russia.

At the beginning of January, it was decided to send a commission (including parliamentarians) to Kherson, to study on the spot the measures that had to be taken for a possible installation of the Romanian government in this city in southern Russia. Together with this commission, in the special train that left Iași in mid-January 1917 for Odesa, there were several parliamentarians, together with their families. From here they were to be transported by ship to Kherson.

The Palace of Justice and the "Pantelimon" church, Odesa

Few of those who will arrive in Odesa in January will continue on their way to Kherson. Most preferred to stay in this important port on the Black Sea, because it was a western-looking city, with wide boulevards, many parks and numerous hotels and restaurants; in addition, Odesa has the advantage of being connected to Iași by a direct railway with "fast and comfortable daily trains". Thus, during 1917, an important colony of Romanians was formed in Odesa, also attracted by the still cheap living. It was also here that various supply commissions of the Romanian state carried out their activities. For more than a year, Odesa was not only a final destination for many Romanian refugees, but also the place where as much politics was done as in Iași. With the exception of two short parliamentary sessions, all the parliamentary movement of 1917 took place in this port city, where almost everyone at the disposal of the government in Iași was located.

Things are going sadly on the Roumanian front. A house in Odessa has been definitely procured for the Royal Family. More Roumanians are arriving daily to swell our already large colony, and rejoicing in comfort and safety. Most of the Senators and Members of Parliament arc here, among them the celebrated pro-Ally Take Jonesco. An alarming development of the advanced revolutionary ideas is attracting attention lately in Odessa. Owing to intrigues of German spies, a great number of simple-minded Russian soldiers have left the trenches, persuaded by fraternizing with the enemy that the millennium is at hand and universal peace about to be declared. Also, the peasant soldiers, profoundly attached to the land-men of the glebe, are afraid that if they are not at home when the new system of land division comes into force they will not get their fair share. By night they steal from their posts — at first only a few, but now by hundreds, nay thousands, they are deserting. As they have no idea of direction or distance, they start to walk to their homes. On the way they become hungry, weary. Sometimes they force their way on the trains — form themselves in bands. When refused food and shelter by farmers, they shoot and pillage, degenerating into bestial plunderers. The owners of estates are crowding into Odessa for fear of their lives, abandoning their homes and goods to the mob

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

Christian Rakovsky, Lev Trotsky and Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea in Bucharest, drawing from 1913

As early as spring 1917, the Romanian Government had acted to prevent revolutionary unrest penetrating their country. After arrests in April to suppress anti-war agitation by the Social Democrats, a number of radical activists, including Christian Rakovsky, Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor, Ion Dic Dicescu, Alexandru Nicolau, Alter Zalic, Vasile Popovici, Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea, took refuge in Odesa. Rakovsky had been successfully freed from prison by May Day demonstrators. In Odesa, Romanian revolutionary exiles formed an Action Committee to try and further their cause, aided by Romanian workers who had come to Odesa to operate equipment evacuated from Romanian naval ports.

Revolutionary soldiers, Odesa, 1916

A small number of discontented soldiers, members of the Socialist Party before the war, most of them Jews or of Bulgarian origin (i.e. from the part of Dobroudja ceded to Roumania in 1913), have deserted and are in Odessa, advertising themselves loudly, and a thorn in the side of our colony. They hope to infilter revolutionary ideas into Roumania. The committees of soldiers and workmen, known as Soviets, seem to be gaining power in every department

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

The sustained propaganda of the Romanian Revolutionary Military Committee did not take long to bear fruit, in a short time two Romanian battalions were formed in Odesa: an infantry battalion and a marine battalion, "as a sign of international solidarity and sympathy with the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of Russia".

The Romanian infantry battalion led by Vasile Popovici consisted of over 1,000 people and organized into four companies. Subunits of this Romanian battalion participated, alongside the Bolsheviks, in the bloody street battles fought for the conquest of the city of Odesa, but also later, against the German-Austro-Hungarian troops that had invaded Ukraine.

At the same time as the formation of the revolutionary land battalion, a Romanian marine battalion was also formed, with an effective number of 300 people, at the head of which was the worker from Galați Gheorghe Stroiciu. After vigorous Bolshevik propaganda among the crews of merchant and passenger ships anchored in southern Russia and among the workers of the Naval Arsenal in Chilia Nouă, starting on January 13, 1918, Gheorghe Stroiciu together with his guards began searching Romanian ships, removing the commanders and placing armed sentries made up of deserters on each of these ships: "Severin", "Gherdap", "Domnița Florica", "Brăila", "Corabia", "Borcea", "Dunărea". All these vessels were confiscated and taken into the possession of the Romanian revolutionary party, being ordered to lower the Romanian tricolor and raise the red flag.

The ordeal of Romania's representatives related by eyewitnesses

Romanian Revolutionaries in Odesa, January 1918

Funeral of civil war victims in Odesa January 1918

At the beginning of January 1918, Christian Rakovsky arrives in Odesa from Petrograd, in his new capacity as "commissar-organizer of Russian-Romanian affairs in South Russia".

We have learned this morning that Racovski has arrived, sent by Lenin and Trotski to take charge of the situation in Odessa, now that it is entirely in Bolshevik hands. I have heard of this man vaguely before, but the consternation which seized our colony when the news was known made me insistent to know all possible details concerning him. He is of Bulgarian origin, a doctor by profession. His family had some property in the part of Dobrogea ceded to Roumania many years ago. He received his early education in Roumanian schools, and was a Roumanian subject by law, though he evidently cherished a consuming hatred of Roumania in his heart, like every true son of Bulgaria. As a young man of considerable intellectual attainments, he became prominent in the Socialist Party, and on account of his activities was exiled from Constantza, where he lived. He had been for years hand in glove with the International Socialist party, and is an intimate friend of Lenin. Since the Revolution he had been imprudent enough to return to Roumania, and used all his power to persuade our soldiers to follow the example of their Russian brethren. We have seen the results of his efforts with our own eyes. However, he overreached himself, and was arrested and in prison in Jassy. How he escaped is a mystery to everyone here. We certainly cannot expect him to be a mild dictator

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

"Passage" Hotel, Odesa

Racovski orders the arrest of important Romanians, officers, parliamentarians, dignitaries, officials or even prominent personalities, but especially the rich. Romanians from the main hotels such as "Passage", "Petrograd", "London" etc. are arrested and taken on ships transformed into prisons ("Împăratul Traian", "Sinope", "Alexis"), under the guard of Russian and Romanian Bolshevik sailors. The raids were held continuously during the day and during the night, sometimes by the Russians, sometimes by Racovski's thugs. This period of arrests and searches lasted almost a month

— Emil Nicolau — "Romanians in the clutches of the Bolsheviks; things seen and lived in Russia"

Racovsky's arrival in Odessa is the beginning of the ordeal of Romanian refugees in this city. The bandit operations undertaken by Dr. Racovsky against the Romanians began on Monday, January 29. That morning, almost a hundred Romanians from hotels and private houses, whose addresses were known, were arrested. On a special list were the names of General Vivescu, General Crăiniceanu, commander Pantazi, then Nestor Cincu, Nunucă Protopopescu, V. Vâlsănescu - deputies, Octavian Goga and others. Those arrested were taken, some to the warships "Sinope" and "Almaz", others to the prisons in the city. On "Almaz", generals Vivescu and Crăiniceanu, N. Protopopescu - deputy, Th. Buzdugan - senator, and others were locked in a latrine. On the "Sinope" were taken the arrested from the "Passage" Hotel, most of the parliamentarians, including G. Lucasievici who was arrested for the third time, put under the deck, in a room where there is never light or air. Among them was C. Gongopol, former editor of "Epoca" and currently director of "Îndreptarea" newspaper.
Those taken to the city jails were kept in cells on cement floors like common criminals. However, whoever paid Racovsky's agents heavily, had the opportunity to escape from prison. The bargain was usurious. Lawyer G. Caranfil was asked for example 10,000 rubles; Mr. Max Bercovici, a banker, was told that he would have to give much more than 20,000 rubles. With some the consent was made... Mr. Pangal and Mr. Stern got away with 5,000 rubles each; Mr. Al. Culoglu, the manager of "Eforie" - with 4,000; a landowner named Munteanu paid about 14,000. Mr. Protopopescu-Argeș, from the Senate chancellery, paid about 7,000, and so on. C. Cociaș, vice-president of the Senate, who had also been arrested, paid Racovsky's men one hundred thousand lei, plus 14,000 rubles, in order to be released. Happy to get rid of the prison, Cociaș, at the exit, shouted with joy: "Long live the revolution!" 3 days later, however, C. Cociaș, with all the sympathy he showed towards Racovsky and the Bolsheviks, was arrested again. What a well-deserved hoax!

— Ion Rusu Abrudeanu — Russian nuisance

Police station and fire department at 44 Preobrazhenskaya Street in Odesa, 1917

On the 14th of February, however, I was arrested at the hotel where I was staying with deputies Iunian and Vâlsănescu and taken to the chancellery of the Romanian revolutionary battalion, defiantly placed in the premises of the Romanian consulate. There, a certain Dicescu told us emphatically that we were arrested in the name of the Romanian people. To deputy Vâlsănescu's observation that nothing entitles him to speak on behalf of the people, whose legal representatives, at least until now, we are, he responded with a cynical emphasis that we represent the people through fraud and corruption, since he represents them indeed, and added that we are guilty of having killed 450,000 people! From there we were sent to prison, and on February 26 Mr. Iunian and Mr. Vâlsănescu were released, but I was not, according to the statement made by M. Bujor to Mr. Iunian, because I was one of the most guilty, as a member of the League and of the National Federation. On February 29, two soldiers from the Romanian revolutionary battalion came to the prison with the task of taking us on the "Împăratul Traian" ship; we found there ten other parliamentary colleagues as well as numerous officers and other Romanians

— Ion C. Grădișteanu, in the "Evenimentul" newspaper from Iași

Installed in the building of the General Consulate of Romania, whose staff had been expelled, Rakovsky starts, through the diplomatic representation of Italy, negotiations with the authorities in Iași. The aim is to release the Russian revolutionaries arrested by the Romanian authorities, in exchange for the parliamentarians and other officials detained in Odesa. Being in the area, Canadian Colonel Joseph W. Boyle - whose mere presence inspires confidence - takes on the role of negotiator between the Romanian state and Cristian Rakovsky

The ship "Împăratul Traian"

Starting from February 24, the Romanian prisoners were taken to the port, to be detained on board the ship "Împăratul Traian". Among those arrested were General Drăgotescu, Ion Stănculeanu - deputy, Ion Pană - senator, Demetrian - a manufacturer from Constanța, N. Popescu - a large owner from Ialomița, Mr. Pașcanu and Mr. Lucescu - teachers; these last two were released.

The treatment of the prisoners on the ship "Împăratul Traian" was inhumane. The prisoners were left to sleep, in the winter, on the bare board, without covers and without bedding. Even on the bare board there was not room for all to lie down to sleep. Many of them, the younger ones, had to sleep sitting on the wooden bench, with their elbows on the table and their heads resting between their hands. The bandits force the prisoners to perform humiliating chores, such as sweeping the ship, cleaning the dirty common toilets, a kind of gutter, infected receptacle for the filth of all the lower staff of the ship.

The same was happening on the ships "Synope" and "Alexis". Among those arrested there were "General Vivescu, General Crăiniceanu, General Hepites, Commander Pantazzi, who came to surrender himself, proving the most perfect dignity, as he was worthy even to the last moment of his detention, Mr. Georgescu-Caliacra, Colonel Dr. Niculescu, Colonel Popescu, Ștefan Bellu, Paul, Gigi Petcu, George Caranfil, the banker Bercovici (the young man), Grigore Procopiu, Nunucă Protopopescu, Pangal, Al. Mărescu and other Romanians. The regime to which we were subjected was odious: We were not allowed to be on the cover, in the open air, the deserters insulted and scolded us; I slept in the ship's cabins kept in an indescribable mess, on some dirty straw mattresses, spread out on the boards; the wood lice were scurrying about, while our sleep was a real torture. By order of "comrades" Racovsky, Bujor, Kupferwasser, etc., we were put to the most humiliating chores. We swept the deck, we fetched the water for the galley and the sailors; we were cleaning the primitive toilets that the "comrades" were careful to dirty as much as possible, so that we would have as much work as possible". After a few days, "Mr. V. Moraru-Andrievici, secretary of our consulate in Odesa, the student Eremia Mârzăianu and an Austrian sub-lieutenant - Kendy, arrested as a spy" arrived on the ship "Alexis" as prisoners.

The Bolsheviki annoy and vex the prisoners continually, and set them all the degrading tasks they can think of. The wives of the prisoners are allowed to take them food, and they need it, as the fare served to them is scanty and of poor quality. There are about seventy prisoners, including bankers, senators, the President of the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce, the Vice-President of the Senate. An elderly General, M. Crainiciano, formerly Minister of War, and several officers have been so ill that they had to be removed to different sanatoriums, though kept there under guard

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

Later, on February 14, the Romanian prisoners were marched through the central streets of Odesa, booed and insulted by a hostile and agitated population, then temporarily "transferred to the Turma [local prison "Odesky Türme"], the prison for felons and murderers, about a mile distant from the city limits". After a few days, the deputies Nunucă Protopopescu, V. Vâlsănescu and Gr. N. Iunian were set free by the Bolsheviks. Also, Mr. Nicu Butclescu was released, after the intervention of the Canadian colonel Boyle.

It seems that the Canadian is an army officer, a Colonel by the name of Boyle. He has been here once before, also by aeroplane, though neither Mr. Ray nor myself knew of it at the time. It appears Schrantchenko has been lately in Moscow and in Roumania, whore he met this Colonel Boyle, and that he is staying with him. Schrantchenko says the Colonel has offered as a neutral to arrange an exchange of prisoners - the Roumanians will give up four hundred they have made in Bessarabia for the seventy-one in the Turma.

After a little consultation, M. Maszewski went upstairs to announce our presence and ask if Colonel Boyle would see us. He returned to say that we were requested to come without delay, as the Colonel was expecting Racovski shortly. I was suffocated with emotion as we mounted the stairway. In a few minutes we were face to face with Colonel Boyle. Though I had never heard of him twenty-four hours earlier, his very appearance inspired me with confidence. He is a deep-chested man of splendid physique, about fifty years of age, his square jaw and bright blue eyes, under straight brows, giving the impression of reserve force. He wore the khaki uniform of the Canadians. I saw "Yukon" written in block letters on his shoulder-strap, and suspended by a blue ribbon around his neck recognized the Roumanian Order of the Crown.
I related to him in detail what I knew of the situation; he, in turn, told me that in the afternoon the Soviet, presided over by Racovski, had agreed to the exchange of prisoners, and promised to deliver the Roumanians in the Turma to him on the morning of March 12th, providing him with a train to take them to the frontier at Bender, where two of his assistants were to be in waiting in charge of the four hundred Bolsheviki detained by our army. The exchange was to be effected on the spot. Colonel Boyle felt evidently a good deal of sympathy with the Bolsheviki, and was anxious to be scrupulously fair to them in every way.

Descending the stairs, we met Racovski coming up, followed by his satellite, Bujor, a sinister individual with a quantity of black beard

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

In the evening of February 26, around 10:00 p.m., when we were all dozing off, we were awakened from our sleep by the steps of the sentry noisily climbing the stairs leading to the so-called salon where we were, and soon we saw Racovski before us who, without preamble and with a Mephistophelian smile on his lips, he told us:

— Do you want to return to the country?
— Of course, we answered.
— Well, maybe you will leave tomorrow, because peace between Russia and Romania has been restored.
— Isn't this also a joke?, ironically asked Mr. Coceaș.
— No, replied Racovski; and to prove it to you, here is the text of the peace treaty. And, in order to convince us of the truth of what he said, he took out of his briefcase the treaty written on two sheets of vellum paper and read it to us cover to cover, showing us the signature of the president of the council at the time, General Averescu. At that moment, while Racovski was reading the peace treaty by the light of the only electric bulb that illuminated us and with the help of a lighter that I put at his disposal, he saw in the dimness of the cabin, at the other end of it, the imposing face of the one who would later be our saviour and whom we didn't know yet.
— This treaty was brought to us from Iași by Colonel Boyle, Racovski told us.

Only the presence of Colonel Boyle, who crossed the air twice coming from Iași to Odesa in an airplane, in order to obtain our freedom, only this could convince us that what Racovski was telling us could be true. Some of us could not sleep all night savouring the joy of freedom after 40 days of humiliating captivity. But the next day we were very disappointed when we were told that Racovski had left during the night to an unknown destination

— Emil Nicolau — Romanians in the clutches of the Bolsheviks; things seen and lived in Russia

In the afternoon the two gentlemen [M. Mendicutti - the Spanish consul in Odesa and the secretary of the Romanian Legation in Odesa] called for me in a sorry-looking Victoria—the best they could find—and we began our long drive to the prison. We were easily admitted, and found the prisoners assembled in the central hall on the friendliest terms with their guardians. As a photographer had been called in, and they were about to have a group photograph taken, they insisted on my being taken with them, placed between the chief warden and General Vivesco, the first of the seventy-one to be arrested. Some of them were sceptical about Colonel Boyle's plan

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

The revolutionary Romanian Bolshevik battalion, nicknamed the "Battalion of Death", marching in Odesa in the spring of 1918

At six-thirty the telephone rang madly. Seized with foreboding, I answered it, to hear B.'s voice. He told me that the "Battalion of Death" had entered the prison at four o'clock in the morning, being admitted by the jailers, who were no longer suspicious of the movements of the Bolsheviki. The leader had made the rounds of the cells, bidding the prisoners prepare to accompany him, as the Soviet wished to return the money, watches and papers taken from them at their arrest before handing them over to Colonel Boyle. Some had been robbed of valuable documents and were anxious to recover them; they did as they were bidden.

Hardly had I dressed than I saw through the window a couple of heavy trucks passing, on the floors of which were seated several of the prisoners, closely guarded by the Battalion. These trucks were speeding in exactly the opposite direction to the station - in fact, toward the port. For two whole days we had seen from the boulevard that the ships were keeping up steam, ready for instant flight should the Germans enter Odessa.
At the door I encountered the Russian Prison Commissioner (a Ukrainian), whose conduct towards the prisoners had always been most humane. He said that the Soviet had no intention of keeping the terms of the treaty with Colonel Boyle. Racovski had fled in the night on a ship, taking with him all the money requisitioned from the Roumanians; the rest of the leaders were hiding; the Germans were only a few hours' march away; fleeing Bolsheviki from the front were crowding into the city by hundreds, and were looting and shooting in the Deribasskaiya. He feared some of the prisoners had been murdered he dared not return to the Turma.

Begging the Commissioner to accompany me, I made rapidly in the direction of Colonel Boyle's residence, but was fortunate enough to meet him in the street. He was walking along slowly and tranquilly, as if it were any day of the year in Woodstock, his native town. He was incredulous at first, and invited me to accompany him to the meeting-place of the Russian-Roumanian Soviet ("Rumcherod", as it was called), just a few yards away from where we had nut. Finding the echoing halls and staircases deserted, he became more willing to listen to my pleadings to accompany me to the port and verify my statement. The Hotel Londra was next door.

Port of Odesa, spring of 1918

We sallied forth together. Colonel Boyle was looking with cold disfavour at the Commissioner, who was almost purple in the face from superhuman efforts to convey to him his knowledge of events, though without the slightest success, as his listener speaks no other language but English. I dug my nails into my hands, so impatient was I to reach the port. There we found a strong cordon of Bolshevik guards barring the approach to the vessels which were moored to the quay. Several prisoners were on the decks of the "Imperator Trajan" and "Princepele Carol". They recognized me from the distance, and on their making despairing signs to me. Colonel Boyle was convinced they were the very men we had come to rescue.

We mounted again in the droshky and drove alone the road behind the docks. It was strewn with cases, barrels, planks, and was sodden with mud. In ten minutes we reached the "Ștefan cel Mare", the Royal Roumanian yacht - now the residence of the "Battalion of Death". The Secretary called out that an English Colonel wanted to talk to Racovski.

Although there was some commotion in the slovenly crowd lounging on the deck, we approached without further preamble. Colonel Boyle leading, and went on board.
— "If M. Racovski is not here, we will speak to his deputy," I said, glancing about.
In a few seconds a furtive-looking man of doubtful cleanliness and with a three-day stubble growth on his face was pushed forward. He appeared to be about thirty-five years of age.
— "Can you tell us where M. Racovski is?" I pursued.
— "He has gone".
— „He promised this English Colonel to deliver seventy-one hostages to him, in order to exchange them for four hundred tovarishi; but the prisoners are taken on board a ship and Colonel Boyle cannot communicate with them”.
— "I know — we have done it for safety. The Germans are almost in Odessa. Come with us, also, Madame. We will be glad to help you and the Englishman to escape. We are sailing in a couple of hours".
Colonel Boyle instructed me to reply, saying in substance that he had made a treaty with the Soviet — failure to deliver the prisoners might be the death-warrant for the four hundred held by the Roumanians; that his arrangements were made; he would escape the Germans, but could not accept the invitation to leave on board; the prisoners were now his, not the Soviet's, to dispose of, and he called on them to be men of honour and keep their word and bond.
At this a babble of heated conversation broke out among those in the background. After some further parley, Dichescu (for we learned the spokesman was so called) promised to wait until two in the afternoon, to give Colonel Boyle an opportunity to obtain an affirmation from the Supreme Soviet that they were still of the same mind as when they signed the treaty forty-eight hours earlier, and gave his word of honour he would then deliver the prisoners safe and sound.
We left the ship. The three anxiously waiting near groaned when they learned the result of the interview. The Commissioner (as translated by the Secretary) said he could guide us to the building where Brashoveanu, the Secretary of the Supreme Soviet, was making a desperate effort to organize resistance to the Germans. It was on the outskirts of the opposite end of the town — about five miles distant.
On our return drive the Colonel and I discussed the possibilities of getting a ship to convey the prisoners to Roumania. We felt the railway was no longer possible. We took side-streets, directed by the Commissioner, and at last found Brashoveanu's headquarters. The clamour of hurrying crowds of soldiers echoed through the building; they were rushing aimlessly up and down the stairways. Brashoveanu was calmer than the rest, but in a despairing mood. When he learned our errand, he referred bitterly to Racovski, saying it was useless to try to do anything now the Soviet was scattered to the four winds, only himself and two others ("poor dupes") were left. He had no power to make the "Battalion of Death" give up the prisoners; not one of the tovarishi would obey him; without a superior force nothing could be done. After considerable urging, he consented to get the remaining two members of the Soviet to sign a paper prepared by the Commissioner on a page torn from his pocket note-book. Asked if he still had the Soviet seal, he answered in the affirmative. With the paper in his hands, he disappeared into an inner room. I sank upon a bench. Everything was in musty disorder - the odour of boots and perspiration permeated the air. The muffled clatter of guns, banging of doors, shouting of disputants were audible from the corridors. The Commissioner and Secretary consulted together anxiously; Colonel Boyle seemed lost in a brown study—silent, massive, detached!
After a while Brashoveanu returned and held out the paper. It had the large red seal affixed and three illegible signatures.
— "This is all I can do," he said. I wish you luck. I wonder how I am to get out of this hell myself".
We shook hands and left him.
Exultantly returning at a rapid pace in the auto, we had a collision with a heavy dray crossing the street in front of us. The car was considerably battered. One of the flying pieces of glass from the broken wind-shield struck me on the head. I felt as if the side of a house had fallen on it. Dizzy and with blood running down into my eyes, I had a moment of discouragement; not so Colonel Boyle. Seeing my handkerchief was soaked, he immediately pulled out a large one from his pocket, which he pressed against my head.
— "You're all right; it's only a scratch. They always bleed like that. I'm a doctor, you know, and can fix you up in no time". The chauffeur managed to get the car in motion again. When we reached home, the door flew open. There were a dozen hysterical women (wives of B.'s fellow- prisoners) in the drawing-room, wanting news of their husbands. Colonel Boyle proceeded to "fix me up". When the doctor arrived he was satisfied with the Colonel's performance, and bound up my head in an artistic turban of bandages. Colonel Boyle looked at me meditatively:
— "I guess you've had enough for one day", he said.
— "Surely Schrantchenko can get me another interpreter. It is only noon now. I have the paper - that is the essential".
Half an hour later, the Secretary, who had gone in the auto to see what was happening in the port, suddenly rushed in like a whirlwind.
— "Where is Colonel Boyle?" he cried. I told him he had gone.
— "If he is not in the port in ten minutes, it will be too late to save the prisoners. The "Ștefan cel Mare" has drawn away from the dock she is sailing now. The "Împăratul Traian" is preparing to follow".

Arriving at Schrantchenko's house, the Secretary bounded up the stairs three at a time. In two seconds Colonel Boyle appeared — cap in hand. He stepped into the auto at once, without even glancing back. Speed-limits had no interest for us — we careened around the corners on one wheel.

Port of Odesa, 1918

When we got to the dock, we found indeed that active preparations were being made for immediate departure. The gang-plank, with a steep incline up to the "Imperator Trajan", was crowded with armed soldiers, carrying their campaign sacks on their backs. We went further on.

Confusion reigned supreme! Profiting by this, Colonel Boyle thrust aside those who endeavoured to oppose him. The "Ștefan cel Mare" was in the middle of the basin. She seemed at anchor, but it was impossible to reach her. To the Secretary's shouts a grinning sailor replied that Dichesco was not on board.
— "Where is he?"
— "Don't know! No use anyway to see him; if you think you are going to get the prisoners, you make a big mistake!"
— „Let us try the Almas — the Russian Naval Soviet is there!”, was suggested.
Back over the same route! We got out where the Almas was stationed. No attention whatever was paid to us by the hustling, bustling crowd engaged in putting provisions on board. On the deck also we were completely ignored.
— "Call out for our friend of this morning", instructed the Colonel.
— "Dichesco! Domnul Dichesco!" I called. From the cabin heads appeared. As if pushed from behind, Dichesco emerged jerkily from a cabin door. Those near gathered about. Something of the following conversation ensued:
Boyle: "I thought you promised to wait for me."
Dichesco (sullenly): „ I'm here”.
Boyle: „Yes, but not at your right address”.
Dichesco: "No use waiting for you, anyway. The Soviet will not consent to give up the prisoners. It is better as it is."
Boyle: "Don't be too sure of that."
And he produced the paper deliberately from his tunic pocket, in which it had been securely buttoned. Dichesco instantly recognized the vivid seal took the paper, read it several times, turned it over, stood on one foot, then on the other, and feeling himself in an awkward position, looked uncertainly behind. Some of the Russian sailors approached, read the paper over his shoulder, and began to insist that he obey and keep his word. His complexion was a sickly green colour by this time.
— "Now," said Colonel Boyle, with emphasis, "you are, of course, a man of honour. Come with us and give the order to have the prisoners handed over to me”.
He reluctantly accompanied us, standing on the running-board of the auto and casting uneasy glances on every side. More than ever I felt convinced that his was not a normal mind. Once alongside the "Imperator Trajan", he went up the gang-plank. We followed on his heels, Colonel Boyle and I. The Secretary remained behind with the car, and I saw him no more that day. Dichesco was at once surrounded by his friends on board. While he was talking with them in low tones, a small auto rattled up to the ship's side; two other leaders mounted the gang-plank and joined him. I heard the name "Bujor" muttered, and recognized Racovski's companion of the other evening. He avoided going near Colonel Boyle, and seemed to urge Dichesco to withhold his decision; but in spite of his whispereded insistence the order was given, and the prisoners were brought on deck and marched on to the quay. I did not see B. among them. We could not approach, as they were surrounded by guards with fixed bayonets. One of the prisoners pointed significantly to the "Principele Carol", just a stone's-throw farther on, where another group were also descending the gang-plank. B. was there, safe and sound! He carried his smaller valise in his hand; at his side was his young adjutant, who had the tea-basket in one hand and the suit-case in the otiier. Colonel Boyle turned to Dichesco.
— „Good-bye!”, he said. "I wish you good luck. Don't you trouble about the prisoners; we'll get away before the Germans come".
We left the ship — but I felt no elation. Lowering faces were on every side. I realized that more than half the Bolsheviki on the ship were Roumanian deserters. The Russian cause was hopelessly lost on the Black Sea coast — where were they to find refuge? By retaining the hostages, they could bargain with our Government for pardon. What did they care about the exchange? Four hundred Russians were nothing to them now!
We approached B. He took a step forward, but the guards prevented his taking a second. Colonel Boyle and he saw each other for the first time. They spoke together a moment. B. demanded why I was there without my overcoat, and also inquired where was my hat. Colonel Boyle wanted to know if all the seventy-one prisoners were present. B. thought they were. Then a sailor came towards us, saying:
— "Will Colonel Boyle come on board to sign the release of the prisoners?"
We returned on board. Dichesco, very evidently at Bujor's instigation, now insisted that a list of the prisoners must be made out, certifying that none was missing, and further, that the Colonel must promise that the Bolsheviki would receive back their comrades on the same conditions.
— „You don't know the Roumanians", he said. "They will hang ten of our comrades for any of theirs who may be missing!"
Colonel Boyle was one — they were a thousand. He looked at his watch.
— "Well, be quick about it", he said. "The Germans ought to be here soon, according to your calculations, and they don't like this uniform."
We went into a cabin at the bottom of a short flight of steps. Dichesco drew a list from his pocket and called in a sailor, who sat down and began to write at his chief's dictation. There were constant interruptions, goings and comings, whisperings behind the door. Colonel Boyle preserved his equanimity perfectly, and I followed his example as well as I could. Several times Dichesco asked me if I knew this or that prisoner. When the wearisome list was completed, Dichesco withdrew, saying he would call the other members of the Soviet to sign the formal release of the hostages, as his signature alone was of no value.
— „Five minutes only, then”, assented the Colonel.
Hardly had he left us than a sliding panel in the cabin wall was pushed aside softly, and a head thrust through the opening, that of a man with grizzled hair and typical Roumanian features.
— "Is that Madame Pantazzi?" he asked.
— "Yes."
— „I've been listening on the other side of the wall and thought I recognized your voice and accent.”
— "Who are you?" I demanded.
— „I was one of the machinists on the "Lascar Catargiu" when the Commander was on board.”.
— "What are you doing here?" I pursued, with growing agitation.
— „I have been a prisoner a long time, and am now forced to work the ship's engines. Get off at once with the Englishman, or you will be carried away — we are casting off”
— "Why do you remain?" I asked.
— „I cannot do as I please — there is a man at my door with a revolver”, was the reply.
Colonel Boyle, who for the first time showed some emotion when this singular colloquy was explained to him, snatched up the papers on the desk and we hastened to the deck. It was thronged so that it was almost impossible to advance to the plank. Once there, we saw the guards below on the dock trying to force the prisoners towards it, and so on to the ship. On descending, Colonel Boyle stood squarely blocking the entrance, a hand on either rail. While we had been in the cabin a number of the wives of the prisoners, accompanied, some of them, by their children, had driven down to the dock and were now grouped near their friends, many of them terror-stricken and in tears. Colonel Boyle announced his unalterable determination to keep the prisoners from going on the ship, and asked all to be confident and calm. We waited — it seemed an interminable age; in reality, probably it was only a few moments. Then we observed Dichesco coming along the dock, and thus he came face to face with us.
— "Sign!" said Colonel Boyle, thrusting the papers he still kept in his hand towards him.
— "How can I sign? There is no ink", was the astonishing answer.
— "Here's a pencil — it will do", said the imperturbable Colonel.
— „I will sign”, was the energetic response.
I will sign," was the energetic response. At that moment he must have made a signal with his hand. The soldiers on the ship began firing down into the helpless crowd. Taken by surprise, Colonel Boyle made an involuntary step forward. Ducking quickly, Dichesco ran like a rat up the gang-plank. Terrible commotion followed. The firing continued, increasing in violence every second. My first thought was for B., whom I saw standing beside General Vivesco at some distance from me. A sailor near me was holding a revolver at arm's length and seemed about to fire in that direction. Convulsively my hand closed over his, forcing the weapon downward.
— "Don't fire!" I entreat „The prisoners are unarmed and cannot harm you."
He wore a Russian sailor's cap, with the yellow and black striped band, but his pockmarked face was unmistakably Roumanian. He replied in that language:
— "Who can tell? — Besides, they must come on board."
— "They will come only don't fire!"
He turned away. At this second B. seized my arm. I saw he grasped his valise firmly.
— "Ethel, what in Heaven's name are you doing?" he exclaimed, and drew me rapidly towards a brick warehouse on the dock, where, sheltered by an empty sell try-box, we were isolated for a minute. He urged me impassionedly to return home. A carriage was passing, the driver lashing his horse. Dropping his bag, B. put his hand on the animal's bridle and forced me in the vehicle. The driver had not time to continue his route before seven or eight of the Reds espied us. General Vivesco stood near - they rushed towards him and B. with lowered bayonets. I saw the General was touched by one, but he did not flinch. As they were being gang-plank I sprang from the carriage, quite unreasoning my only idea was to cling to B. He saw me, and putting out his hand, clasped mine an instant.
— „Be quite tranquil — my life is more valuable to the Bolslieviki than my death. I will surely return. Promise you will go home at once — you are forgetting the children!”
Women and children were shrieking., some of the prisoners trying to escape, frightened horses stampeding. My thoughts now turned to Colonel Boyle. I looked about me. Where I left him, there I found him. Forced by the weight of numbers to one side of the gang-plank, he was now standing quietly a few inches from it.
— "What are you going to do now?" I asked him.
He looked at me; then our eyes turned instinctively towards the deck. We saw two sailors beating a white-haired man on the back with the butts of their guns. B. had disappeared in the howling crowd of Bolsheviki.
— „I can't stand for this”, he replied. „I'm with going with them”.
We shook hands. Unarmed though he was, a stranger to me and mine, no shadow of doubt was possible - he was the right man in the right place.
— „Go”, I said urgently, „or are all dead men!”
I can see him now mounting the steep incline that led to that ship of horror, and seizing by the scruff of their necks the two wretches who were beating one of "his" prisoners, as he called them. A few seconds later the hawsers were cut, the gang-plank flung down. A band of music on the ship drowned with its blare other sounds of departure.

I was left on the dock... alone...

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — Roumania in Light & Shadow

Port of Odesa

On the morning of February 28, 1918, Colonel Boyle arrived with the High College's order setting us free, and we were immediately set to disembark on the quays. Under the pretext of deportation to Sebastopol where they would have been set free, the following Romanian prisoners were brought from the "Odesky Türme" prison to be boarded on the ship "Împăratul Traian": Ionaș Grădișteanu - former minister, commander Pantazzi, general Vivescu; Nestor Cincu, commander Mihăilescu, col. dr. Niculescu, major Protopopescu, Ștefan Bellu - prefect, deputy Zamfir Filotti, senator Ion Boceanu, major Rosetti, Gr. Procopiu - senator, Paul - deputy, Darouge, Al. Cazimir, Raul Crăciun, captain Negreanu, captain Râmniceanu, second lieutenant G. Horăscu, second lieutenant I. Horăscu, captain George Ionescu, A. Kinde, Marius Pană, military navy captain N. Râmniceanu, P. Meteș, Gribovsky, second lieutenant Mateescu-Pârlog, second lieutenant C. Ghirgiu, second lieutenant N. Rădulescu, lieutenant A. Mateescu, lieutenant A. Roșianu Cristian, commissioner A. Broșcanu, lieutenant Sirian, commissioner Periețeanu, Emil Nițescu - railway inspector, I. Fochi, I. Carasa, captain Chiriș, G. Alexandrescu, I. Iricescu etc. After a short wait on the quay, Dicescu arrives on the scene, to whom Colonel Boyle presents the minutes of protocol. This is where the implementation of the plot hatched by the famous Bujor-Nicolau bandits, who were already installed in their cabins on the "Împăratul Traian" and were waiting to see their work crowned with success, begins.

Port of Odesa

We were on the quays, waiting for the moment when we would be taken to the ship. The families of most of us were also on the quay to see where they would have to come to board with us. Dicescu, seeing the report presented to him by colonel Boyle, objected that the document should be made in duplicate. After a moment of thought, Colonel Boyle told Dicescu, through Mrs. Pantazi, who played a significant role in our rescue, that he still had a report with the names of the Romanian and Russian hostages and that he only had to add to it the 10 lines of the protocol, which cannot take more than half an hour. But Dicescu objects that there is no more time, because the ship is under pressure and that the German envoys are in Odessa, so he must leave immediately. Colonel Boyle objects that he is able to go with them until the minutes are ready and he will return to the shore in a boat, leaving the Romanian hostages on the quays, but in the meantime, following an order from Bujor, the squire Popovici screams terribly:

— "All aboard!"
And, seeing that we do not understand whether this order also concerns us, he shouts even louder:
— "Bring the prisoners on board!"
At that moment, a scene of shocking drama took place, which I could not forget even if I had ten more lives to live. As the Russian sailors prepared to pull the ship's gang-plank, none of us could obey the order to get on board. Then Popovici, Racovski's agent, raised his revolver and fired. That was the signal. The 800 revolutionary deserters who had already boarded the ship had begun to shout:
— "Shoot them, kill them, or just board them!"
The sentinels on the quays, as if foretold of what was to come, began to fire. The wild cries of the deserters, the commands of their leaders, the salvos of the sentries, mingled with the insults of the Russian sailors who would not let us go on board, produced a panic, a terrible panic: the women and children uttered heart-rending screams, seeking refuge in a storehouse situated in front of the ship, many of ours followed their families, partly to avoid being shot, partly to reassure their wives and children. And the deserters were shouting as loud as they could:
— "Catch them, if they run, shoot them like dogs!"
The sentinels indulged in excesses: they hit the Romanians on the quays with their rifles and bayonets, who had no other fault than that they were not allowed by the Russian sailors to get on board. Some were beaten up. Senator Boceanu was hit by a bullet in the leg, fortunately without serious consequences. Mr. Mărăscu, a refugee in the front warehouse, was brought in fists, pierced in one leg with a bayonet and thrown onto the ship like a bale of cargo. The bandits wanted to force Mr. Nestor Cincu to get on the ship by hanging on to the rope that tied the ship to the quay. But he refusing, the sailors camped on him and beat him mercilessly. Ms. Cincu clung to her husband's neck to protect him from the blows, but she was brutalized and thrown around by those beasts. Commander Pantazzi, who was ready to board the ship, with a courage that does him credit, was threatened by a group of Russian sailors who were preparing to hit him. Then Colonel Boyle, who up to that time had been looking at that picture with astonishing calmness, rushed into the group of sailors, knocked down one of them with a blow of his stick, and when the Russian sailors wanted to jump at him with their revolvers outstretched, the brave English-Canadian colonel defies them, looking them straight in the eye with the courage of brave men, and forces them to retreat timidly, as caged lions are tamed by the fascinating gaze of their trainer.

At length the gang-plank was re-laid, and we boarded the ship amid the curses and raised fists of the deserting sailors and soldiers, fists which often veered towards one of our own. The vessel is ready for departure, to take us stealthily, when Colonel Boyle resolutely climbs on board, and makes his way furiously to the cabin of the famous Bujor. And we are led towards the stern of the ship, sneaking away from the raised fists, which are ready to camp at us, heading again towards the place where we were tortured for so many days. The ship moves away from the quay. Sorrowful, we throw ourselves on the benches which are to serve as our resting-place for that night and all the next day, and consider ourselves lost also in the power of our savage enemies. But suddenly the brave Colonel Boyle appeared among us, who would not leave us, and followed us closely with a firm resolution to save us, — and saved us. Right after that, we were counted. 13 of us were missing. Were they killed? escape? Who could know? And the ship floated... floated... took us to the unknown

— Emil Nicolau — Romanians in the clutches of the Bolsheviks; things seen and lived in Russia

The ship "Dacia"

On February 29, two soldiers from the Romanian revolutionary battalion came to the prison with the task of taking me on the "Împăratul Traian" ship, which, they said, was supposed to take us to Akerman to hand us over to the Romanian armies. Arriving on the "Împăratul Traian" ship, we found there ten other parliamentary colleagues as well as numerous officers and other Romanians, convinced, like me, that we will be sent to Akerman, according to the stipulations of the treaty concluded with the Romanian government. After a short time we were disembarked on the quays, and told that we were to be put on board an Italian steamer, intended to take us, with the American Colonel Boyle, who had brokered the agreement, to Akerman. For this purpose, a protocol was concluded, signed by Colonel Boyle and the members of the grand college, which showed the names of the Romanians, who, on the guarantee of Colonel Boyle, were to be exchanged at Akerman with an equal number of Bolshevik prisoners, sent from Iasi. At this time, the ship "Împăratul Traian", on which the Romanian revolutionary battalion and Racovsky's gang had boarded, was ready to leave for Sebastopol. Then, the secretary of the great college, Dicescu, holding the completed minutes, declared to Colonel Boyle that it was not valid, because it had to be made in duplicate. To Colonel Boyle's observation that a duplicate could be made, the bandit Dicescu, revealing his intentions, replied that there was no time left, as the ship had to leave and that the second copy would be made... in Sebastopol. At the same time he ordered the guards, who were surrounding us, to put us on the ships and seeing that the Romanians were hesitating, he ordered them to fire. At that moment I decided to escape and passing through the cordons of the revolutionary guards, I ran towards the city pursued by the guards' fire. After running about 5-600 meters, sneaking after the warehouses and wagons that were in the port, I managed to get out into a street, where I was lucky enough to find a free carriage, in which I got into and which he took me to a host where I took shelter. About what happened after my escape, I only know from hearsay. I only know that while I was running, I found Nestor Cincu sheltered in a shed and who seemed to have escaped. But I heard later that he was caught and put on the ship "Dacia", because the "Împăratul Traian" had left

— Ion C. Grădișteanu, in the "Evenimentul" newspaper from Iași

About ten o'clock Mitru came to where I was sitting close to the children's cots — incapable of exerting myself to shake off the lethargy which had fallen upon me.

— „The Germans are all around the house”, he exclaimed.
Opening the shutter cautiously and peering into the darkness, I could see the gleam of helmets and hear the murmur of low voices. I listened intently. A few German words came to my ears. Across the square one could dimly discern rows of shadowy figures. No doubt of it; Odessa was taken, and apparently without a blow being struck in its defence!

The Germans, as allies of the Ukrainians, restored order in Odessa — looting was at an end. In the port three of the Bolskeviki leaders were hanged — I could see the top of the gibbets from my bedroom window. Nothing transpired of what had been the negotiations between the Germans and the fleeing ships; the smoke of the last one faded on the horizon the second day after the Germans' arrival (i.e. March 2nd).

Austrian Field Marshal Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli reviewing the troops in Odesa, 1918

Pushkinkaiya Street, Odesa, 1917

In the meantime we were unmolested by the Germans. The third day after their arrival they had a triumphal "entry." The soldiers, Austrian and German, were lined up, making a double aisle along the whole Pushkinskaiya, from the station to the port, as well as the boulevard and the Deribasskaiya. Each had a twig of evergreen stuck in his helmet. Military music was massed in the square outside the Duma. A photographer placed his cinematograph camera on the balcony of the apartment overhead and took pictures of the troops marching round and round in a circle, with the Duma as a background.
The troops were reviewed by an Austrian Feld-Marechal, who walked slowly down the aisle formed by the soldiers, saluting smilingly. He carried a gold-headed tasselled cane, probably the official field-marshal's baton. His long green overcoat was partly unbuttoned and displayed the red lining of the open revers, between which were his numerous decorations. Following him came a numerous staff of officers on horseback — the Hungarians picturesque with fur bonnets on their heads and dolmans suspended over their shoulders. " Hoch! Hoch!" shouted the soldiers. The population of Odessa filled the streets, curious but apathetic. I detected no sign of either joy or sorrow in any face passing my window.

One day about noon I was standing at the window, when I recognized a man passing by as a Russian I had often met at the American Consulate — a gentleman who had passed many years in America and regretted he had not remained there. I knew since the Germans' arrival he had taken some position in the Duma. He smiled and made a sign for me to open the window. Leaning out, I greeted him, but he wasted no time on formalities. Hardly pausing, he said:
— "Telegrams are coming through from Theodosia, sent by Colonel Boyle. He is alive. The messages have been coming for several days, but do not get any farther than Petrograd."
I knew the Petrograd Hotel was the headquarters of the German staff. I donned my hat and sped to the office of the Spanish Consul, the defender of Roumanian interests. Much astonished at these tidings, M. Mendicutti went at once, attended by the Roumanian Secretary now in his office (the same man who had procured the auto for Colonel Boyle), to ask for an interview with the Austrian Field-Marshal. That haughty personage, after keeping them waiting two hours, disavowed any knowledge of the affair and dismissed them very shortly.

M. Mendicutti, chagrined by this treatment, was disinclined for further investigation. We had become gradually aware that though the Austrians were the nominal directors in Odessa, the power behind the throne was, as everywhere, German; and that a German, Admiral Hopman, who was in charge of Black Sea affairs, received telegrams, for the wireless stations were manned with his subordinates. Entreated by the relations of the prisoners to be their spokeswoman and intercede with the Admiral, I persuaded M. Mendicutti to go to the "Petrograd" and request an interview.

German Rear Admiral Albert Julius Emil Hopman

On entering I saw a tall, broad-shouldered man standing in the middle of the room smoking a cigar. We seated ourselves on either side of a small table. He politely laid aside his cigar. I told him as lucidly and rapidly as possible my story, speaking in the name of my companions in suffering and misfortune. He listened, at first somewhat cynically, interrupting with questions, then appeared more interested. When I told him of Colonel Boyle going on board the ship, he exclaimed:

— "By Jove! I'd like to see that man myself."
— "Well", I answered, leaning forward eagerly "you can; he is alive. Telegrams are coming through. Can't you do something to arrange matters?"
M.Mendicutti, who had all this time been sitting quietly in the background, realized (though he speaks no English) that the crucial moment had come. He rose and began most earnestly to plead the cause of the Roumanians. The Admiral listened silently, drumming his fingers lightly on the table.
— „We will look over the telegrams”, he remarked.
The portfolio was brought. He turned over a mass of papers and found the one I referred to — a mutilated telegram signed by Colonel Boyle, asking permission to land with the Roumanian prisoners in Odessa.
— „You see the Bolsheviki are willing to let them return”, I said, when he had read it aloud.
— „All I can do is to telegraph to Marechal Mackensen tonight, asking his instructions. Is there anything you would like to say?”
Taken unprepared by this question, I replied that I was sure he could arrange the matter perfectly, and took leave of him, with a hopeful heart. I never dreamed I would hold out a willing hand to a German. Life is full of surprises!
Two days later (March 27th) M. Mendicutti brought me a message from Admiral Hopman.
— „The Admiral sends you his compliments and congratulations”, he said. „General Mackensen has given permission for the prisoners to be brought to Sulina; he cannot allow a landing on Odessa. Telegrams have been exchanged with Sebastopol, where the prisoners are at present with Colonel Boyle. He trusts that you will soon see your husband alive and well."

My energies were now directed towards arrangements to return to Roumania. On the anniversary of our wedding-day (March 27th) my mental agony was at an end, for a messenger had come with a pencilled note from B. - alive, well, and at Sulina! It seemed unbelievable that he had survived. We left Odessa on the morning of March 30th

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi - "Roumania in Light & Shadow"

The journey back home

Three of Colonel Boyle's prisoners live in Galatz, and I have pieced together an account of the party's wanderings from their reports and a few details given me by B. When the "Imperator Trajan" left the dock in Odessa and got out to sea, the excitement of the Bolsheviki abated. Colonel Boyle stood on the deck, and all the prisoners were finally grouped about him. He saw that nine were missing, and their friends on board were of the opinion that they had been killed, although in reality, as far as I have ever been able to find out, only two Russians were victims of the shooting.

The ship was commanded by two captains — one a Russian, the other a Roumanian; and among the thousand Bolsheviki crowded on board, the number of each nationality was about equal. These captains assigned a cabin to the prisoners, where they were herded together, with no place to lie down and sleep. What rest they got was by leaning the head against a neighbour's shoulder. Their baggage (hand-bags — some had been abandoned in the struggle) was minutely examined, and most of the contents removed. Colonel Boyle was offered a cabin to himself, but refused to accept any favours. The prisoners were grateful for his presence, feeling he was a tower of strength to them. For three days they were guarded thus. The sea was running high and many were miserable. At irregular intervals some tinned cabbage was thrown into the cabin, as one would throw food to dogs. By dint of hammering and prying open with penknives, the tins were opened. Once or twice tea was served them with sugar so dirty and black they dared not use it.
They entered several ports, but were not allowed to land. At the third the length, day, engines stopped; they were in the harbour of Theodosia a small port on the north shore of the Black Sea, beyond the Crimea. They were ordered to leave the ship. Colonel Boyle accompanied them. Surrounded by guards, they marched through the town. A street fight was going on between the Bolsheviki and the residents of Theodosia, who were opposed to them. Bullets were whistling through the air; crossing a square, the guards lost their nerve and fled. Most of the prisoners fell on their faces and crawled to places of shelter behind garden walls. When the tide of battle rolled away, the guards returned, rounded them up and marched them to a sanatorium on the outskirts of the town. Here Chinese International soldiers were stationed, who took them in charge. The sanatorium, so called, had been used as a cholera hospital. There were a number of beds without mattresses or bedding. Straw was brought from the courtyard and strewn on the floor, where most of the prisoners were forced to sleep. Remaining roubles concealed in their clothing were now very useful to the unfortunates; as but little unsavoury food was provided, they were glad to be able to purchase extra bread, which was permitted, the guards willingly sharing; it with them. To while away the weary hours they washed their own linen. Colonel Boyle, of course, had nothing extra, and went about barefooted while his solitary pair of socks were drying. B., with his tea-basket, was the most popular of the party. He also had a pack of cards. (He brought them home — they were worn to the thinness of tissue-paper, the figures being undecipherable.)
The British Vice-Consul (a Greek merchant) in Theodosia, informed of Colonel Boyle being with the prisoners, assisted him in his efforts to plan an escape. One afternoon he sent a messenger to call the Colonel to his office most urgently, and though he had not yet quitted his flock even for an hour, the gravity of the message decided him to go into town at once. Advising the prisoners to prepare for a quick departure in such a way as not to arouse the suspicion of the guards, he went off, leaving them in a most anxious frame of mind.
Some hours passed, dusk came on — still he did not reappear. Suddenly a sound of marching feet was heard. A detachment of twenty well-armed men entered the courtyard, taking the Chinese unawares and quickly seizing them. Colonel Boyle was one of the new arrivals; he at once commanded the prisoners to fall into ranks of four and march double-quick to the port, where he told them he had a ship engaged to take them out to sea. Not a moment was to be lost, as the naval Bolsheviki were determined to do away with them that very night.
Two of their number, betraying their comrades with whom they had quarrelled, had warned the Vice-Consul. Nonplussed by the obstinacy of Colonel Boyle, weary of the whole situation and despairing of ever being able to return to their native shores, the majority of those on board the "Imperator Trajan" had resolved to put the prisoners and their protector in a munition deposit shed and then blow up the place. It would appear an accident — no inquiries would be made and a source of irritation and expense be thus simply removed!
Ten of the guards engaged by Colonel Boyle went first, the prisoners following, the rear guard being formed by the remaining ten Chinese. Rapidly the procession moved through side streets and alleys not a moment too soon they got on board the "Chernomor". Just as they were about to sail, two of the Bolsheviki from the "Imperator Trajan", who had got wind of the escape, came running breathlessly to the spot.
— „We want to parley with Colonel Boyle”, they cried. The Colonel requested B. (who acted as his interpreter, being the only one of the prisoners who spoke English) to invite them on board. No sooner were they safely in the cabin than the ship was backed away from the dock. Loud were their protestations, but of no avail. A few stray cannon shots from the town were fired after them, but no harm was done.
The "Chernomor" was a miserable, leaky tub, but had coal enough on board to get them to Sebastopol. B. told me he was amazed that the Greek Captain had agreed to leave port with her, even for the very considerable sum (one hundred and fifty thousand roubles) Colonel Boyle had paid him for the attempt. At Sebastopol was the headquarters of the „Centru Flotte” the most important Black Sea Soviet, to which all sailors in the region were loyal. Once there (March 10), Colonel Boyle, who was known to the local Bolsheviks, having negotiated with them in the past, obtained attention and consideration. After several meetings with the Soviet, in which a one-legged man named Spiro (formerly a shoemaker, now Chief Conmiander of the Bolsheviki Navy) played a prominent role, the Soviet upheld the decision of the Odessa Soviet, declared that the prisoners belonged legally to Colonel Boyle, and that the sailors of the Impcrator Trajan were enemies of the Revolution and traitors. Colonel Boyle now inspired in them a burning desire to get their four hundred martyrs suffering in Roumania back to their native land. The only way to do this would be to allow him to return with the Roumanian hostages and effect the exchange. By wireless they flashed telegrams to Odessa under his directions. When the favourable answer was received, the Colonel and his band of prisoners, greatly rejoicing, set forth again in the "Chernomor" for Sulina.
Hardly were they a day's sail from Scbastopol than a tempest began to rage. They were obliged to seek shelter in Ecaterinaburg, where the wind prevented them from leaving port for forty-eight hours. The Soviet of Ecaterinaburg were not of the same opinion as the Soviet of Scbastopol, and made many difTiculties before they permitted the boat to leave; then the captain of the "Chernomor" elected to sail as near to the shore as he could for the rest of the journey to Sulina. B. told me that to him the last twelve hours were the worst of the whole trip, as he knew how thickly the mines were placed, but he could not persuade the captain to take a safer course.
At length Sulina was reached. The Austrian flag flew on all the buildings. They were allowed to come alongside the quay but not to land. Colonel Boyle told the Austrians of Mackensen's permission and promise. Evidently the relations between them and the Germans were not of the best, for it was only after two days' telegraphing and acrimonious disputes that the apparently unwearied Colonel Boyle was enabled to see the four hundred Russians marched on board and wave a cordial good-bye to the captain as the "Chernomor", flying the red revolutionary flag, set forth once more to sea. A ship sent from Galatz then bore him and his repatriated, shaved, brushed and jubilant party up the river. At Galatz a special train was waiting, and when it drew up to the station at Jassy, delegates from the King and Parliament were on the platform to welcome the Colonel. Relations of the prisoners and numerous friends had heard of the arrival; not only the station but the streets were thronged with a cheering crowd. People had given up the prisoners and their saviour for dead—the series of miracles by which they were saved will pass into legend.
The next day, March 25th, Colonel Boyle lunched at the Palace. The Queen, with her own hand, decorated him with the "Star of Roumania". When B. had an audience with the King, he told me His Majesty bade him omit not even the tiniest incident of their wanderings, exclaiming again and again "Extraordinary! Extraordinary!"

I asked B. how it was that all the prisoners got back alive. I knew some of them had had chronic ailments for years and many were elderly. He laughed and said: "They just had to live — the Colonel had sworn to bring them back alive, and they dared not even look ill!"

— Ethel Greening Pantazzi — "Roumania in Light & Shadow"

Epilogue

Although he only spoke English, Boyle always made himself understood, adapting to personalities and circumstances. The significance of this action is also underlined by the French ambassador to Romania, the Count de Saint-Aulaire, in his memoirs: ”[the prisoners] only escaped torture and death thanks to the Austro-Hungarian occupation of central Russia and the intervention of Canadian Colonel Boyle, to whom I delegated their care, who, with admirable energy, revolver in one hand and pounds sterling in the other, snatched them out of their executioners’ gaping maws". The “adventure” ended in a triumph, the trade of prisoners took place, the crowd welcomed them with flowers and cheers, the King awarded Boyle the Star of Romania, a street in Galați received the Canadian colonel's name.

After the war, during the negotiations held in Paris in 1920, he played the role of unofficial counsellor of the royal family, a position that did not allow him to participate directly in the peace negotiations in Paris, but did not stop him from finding the right tools to draw the participants' opinions in Romania's favour. A consistent exchange of messages took place between Queen Marie and Boyle. In Paris, where her presence dazzled everybody, she met numerous influential persons following his introductions. All those personalities of world politics at the time, including “the not particularly congenial” Herbert Hoover, the future American president, had a positive reaction to the recommendation — and then to the charm of the queen — and this attested to the high quality of Boyle's network and the respect he had earned. The Queen's diary recorded a similar type of support during her visit to England after Paris, when Boyle, coming to Buckingham almost daily, brought with him “anyone who (he) considered it useful for me to meet". After the Treaty of Trianon, what only a few years before seemed impossible happened: Romania's territory tripled in size. A utopian ideal became reality, uniting together in one nation-state the Romanians from Moldova, Wallachia, Banat, Bessarabia, Dobrodgea, and Transylvania. On 15 October 1922, in Alba Iulia, Ferdinand was crowned king of all Romanians. Queen Marie attended the ceremony on her horse, Austral, which her “faithful, good old Joe” had given to her hoping for this very moment of grace. It is not known if the horse's name (meaning South) was chosen by Boyle, but it seems very significant because the man from the North, through his moral imagination, contributed to the reconfiguration of the South of Europe and fulfilled his exceptional destiny.

See also

• Joseph Whiteside Boyle
• George Alexander Hill
• Rumcherod
• Romanian military intervention in Bessarabia

Bibliography

• Pantazzi, Ethel Greening (1921). Roumania in Light & Shadow. London: T. Fisher Unwin. OCLC 771786297.
• Procopiu, Grigore (2018). Parlamentul în pribegie: 1916-1918: amintiri, note și impresii [Parliament on the Run: 1916-1918: Memories, Notes and Impressions] (in Romanian). Ed. Humanitas, Bucharest. ISBN 9789735058289. OCLC 1050113281.
• Abrudeanu, Ion Rusu (2015). Pacostea rusească: note istorice, impresii, documente și scrisori în legătură cu războiul nostru [The Russian Nuisance: Historical Notes, Impressions, Papers, and Letters Relating to Our War] (in Romanian). Bacău: Ed. Vicovia. ISBN 9786068541785. OCLC 1193196141.
• Nicolau, Emil Georges (1919). Românii in ghiarele bolșevicilor; lucruri văzute și trăite in Rusia [Romanians in the clutches of the Bolsheviks; things seen and lived in Russia] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Ed. H. Steinberg. OCLC 47250438.

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Categories:

• Repatriation
• 1918 in Romania
• 1918 in Russia
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• Romania in World War I