60 THE GREEN RISING 



lation could be satisfied, and as early as 1913 the 

 Liberal Party declared its adherence to the prin- 

 ciple of the expropriation of the large landlords to 

 this end." 6 



But the legal process of expropriation was not 

 authorized until June, 1917. While Germany was 

 actually occupying Bucarest, the Roumanian Parlia- 

 ment, which sat at Jassy, convoked a Constituent 

 Assembly which amended the constitutional pro- 

 visions with reference to private property. The 

 right to expropriate private property for reasons 

 of public utility existed previous to this time. The 

 Constitutional Amendment of Jassy, as it is now 

 called, greatly extended the policy of expropriation. 

 "In order to establish peasant ownership," says 

 Evans, "it was decreed that all inalienable lands, 

 and all lands belonging to foreigners, absenteeists, 

 corporations and institutions, the Crown and the 

 Casa Rurala should be completely expropriated; 

 while, most important of all, the private owners 

 were to be called upon to furnish between them two 

 million hectares (nearly five million acres) of cul- 

 tivable land as well." 6 



The net result of this legislation, according to 

 Evans, has been that over two and a half million 

 hectares, or 6,250,000 acres of cultivable land, has 

 already (1924) been expropriated in the old king- 

 dom of Roumania. The main object of agricultural 



5 The Agrarian Revolution in Roumania (1924), Chap. V, p. 100. 

 9 Ibid., Chap. V, p. 102. 



