The prosperity of the Roumanian industry has been directly the result of the influx of foreign capital, and the majority of the 550,000,000 francs employed in it, is mostly made up of British, American, and German capital. The principal English Company in the fields is the Roumanian Consolidated Oil-fields, Ltd., which concern, with its capital of one and three-quarter millions sterling, represents an amalgamation of many small companies. Space forbids my referring at length to the momentous happenings in the Roumanian fields towards the end of 1916, but they will ever form one of the most interesting--and at the same time the most tragic--incidents associated with Roumania’s petroleum industry. At that time, the German armies were pushing their way toward Roumania, and, in fact, having crossed the border, were marching on for possession not merely of territorial gains, but in order to secure themselves of large quantities of petroleum products by capturing the prolific oil-fields of the country. It was at that critical time that the British Government sent out its Military Mission, headed by Colonel (now Sir) John Norton Griffiths, completely to destroy all that was valuable in connection with the oil-fields, the refineries, and the installations. One night the Mission arrived at the offices of the Roumanian Consolidated Oil-fields, Ltd., and made its plan of campaign clear. There was nothing to be done but to fall in with it, and the following morning practically everything was destroyed, or rather, a start was made to destroy it. And the destruction was carried out in a complete manner, for not only one, but several concerns which had been steadily built up to perfection as the result of many years of careful and systematic expansion, were all wiped out, excepting in name. The oil-wells were plugged beyond all hope of repair, the refineries were dismantled, machinery broken, pipe-line connections damaged, and both crude and refined oil stocks burned. It was the most tragic proceeding ever recorded in oil-field history, but it was necessary, and not carried out one day too soon, for the incoming armies were dangerously near. [Illustration: BUSTENARI--ROUMANIA’S FAMOUS OIL REGION] The Germans lost no time in making good a great deal of the damage to the fields, and at the time of the armistice it was stated that the crude oil output of Roumania was up to 80 per cent. of its pre-war level. Now that the various allied interests are again operating in the Roumanian fields, considerable expansion of the country’s petroleum industry is being planned, though the pre-war German interests therein are now taken over by the Allies.