A Condition Precedent.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 22, 1913:
    If Bulgaria consents to, and the Powers allow, the transfer to Rumania of the fortress of Silistria and the adjacent territory, there is one condition that should be required and enforced. That is the grant of the rights and immunities of citizenship to the several thousands of Jews now living there in safety and fair prosperity. This is in no sense a matter of sectarianism; it is a matter of humanity and of decent regard for justice and for treaty obligations. The Bulgarians have been intelligent and humane in their treatment of all the subjects of the King. There is no reason to doubt — should they finally transfer territory to Rumania — that they would gladly guard the rights of the people by a proper pledge from Rumania. But Bulgaria would, after the transfer, be practically powerless to exact fulfillment of the pledge. The great Powers alone could do that.
    While there is no direct mode of action by which our Government could intervene in this matter, it could exert its moral influence with entire propriety, in the spirit of the note of Secretary John Hay to the Rumanian Government. It might, indeed, go further and express informally to the Powers its view of the interests which it and every other Government having nationals of the race whose rights are involved must feel in securing just treatment for their brethren in the territory in question. The wrongs of this race were acknowledged in the Berlin Treaty, and provision for their remedy was made. That has not been enforced. Now it should be.