UC-NRLF 
 
4 
 
 GIFT OF 
 Harry East Miller 
 
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Microbe-Culture 
 at bukarest 
 
 Discoveries at the German Legation 
 
 From 
 The Rumanian Official Documents 
 
 HODDER & STOUGHTON 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 
 MCMXVII. 
 
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Microbe-Culture 
 at bukarest 
 
 Discoveries at the German Legation 
 
 From 
 The Rumanian Official Documents 
 
 HODDER & STOUGHTON 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 
 MCMXVII. 
 

 THE DOCUMENTS 
 
 Note from the Rumanian Ministry for 
 
 Foreign Affairs to the Governments of 
 
 Neutral States 
 
 Annex i. — Proch-verhal of Sept. 22nd/0ct. 5th, 
 1916, relative to the excavations made on that 
 date in the garden of the German Legation. 
 
 Annex 2. — Proch-verhal drawn up on the same 
 date relative to the depositions of the persons 
 named Markus and Maftei. 
 
 Annex 3. — Report No. 134498 by the Prefect of 
 Pohce of B«l^'afest,.'af:S^pt. 26th/Oct. 9th, 1916. 
 
 Annex 4.— Elt%*No: ;i63-24, of Sept. 24th/Oct. 
 7th, :/0>;[^i;;^T^dj-^sf;4 fcyXth^e Directorate of 
 Mihtary' Pyf oteclinics 'Vd thV Police. 
 
 Annex 5. — Analysis Sheet No. 31/1916 made out 
 by the Military Pyrotechnical Laboratory. 
 
 Annex 6. — Letter No. 10472, of Sept. 27th/Oct. 
 loth, 1916, addressed by the Directorate of 
 Military Pyrotechnics to the Prefect of Police 
 of Bukarest. 
 
 Annex 7. — Letter No. 361, of Sept. 28th/Oct. 
 nth, 1916, addressed by the Director of the 
 Bacteriological Institute, Professor V. Babesh, 
 to the Prefect of Police of Bukarest. 
 
 Annex 8. — Letter No. 374/1916, from the same 
 to the same. 
 
Oi/\AV 
 
 MICROBE-CULTURE AT 
 BUKAREST 
 
 Discoveries at the German Legation 
 From the Rumanian Official Documents 
 
 Rumania renounced her neutrality towards the 
 Central Powers in the third August of the war, 
 and the Germans professed indignation. But 
 when the German diplomatic staff left Bukarest 
 it was discovered that they had not renounced 
 but violated their neutrality towards Rumania 
 during these two years of peace, and this viola- 
 tion had been trebly disgraceful. It was com- 
 mitted clandestinely under the cloak of friend- 
 ship ; the instruments of it were the accredited 
 representatives of Germany in the Rumanian 
 capital ; and the hostile acts of which they were 
 guilty were dastardly and devilish. Fifty infernal 
 machines, and six test-tubes containing cultures 
 of the anthrax and glanders bacilli, had been 
 conveyed by German diplomatic couriers (ex- 
 empted by their international privilege from the 
 scrutiny of the Rumanian Police) from the 
 German Consulate at Brasso (Kronstadt), in 
 Hungary, to the German Consulate at Bukarest. 
 These objects were afterwards unearthed in the 
 garden of the German Legation, in the presence 
 of a member of the U.S. Legation and of the 
 
 3 
 
 M82506 
 
\'^ jAlC^ajiE-CULTlJRE AT BUKAREST 
 
 Rumaniati' Frefet't of Police, when the German 
 diplomatists had departed. The story would be 
 incredible if it were not proven by incontro- 
 vertible documentary evidence. 
 
 ''The attention of the Rumanian Government," 
 states the Minister for Foreign Affairs, "had for 
 some time been attracted by certain activities of 
 the German Consulate at Bukarest, which seemed 
 to it suspicious. On several occasions, packets 
 and cases had been introduced with a multitude 
 of precautions into the Consulate, and had not 
 issued from it again till the day before our 
 declaration of war (Aug. i4/27th, 19 16), when a 
 certain number of them were transferred to the 
 German Legation, which at Bukarest occupies a 
 separate position situated at a considerable dis- 
 tance from the Consulate in question. The 
 Rumanian authorities having further convinced 
 themselves that the suspicious cases had not been 
 taken away, on their departure, by the German 
 diplomatic staff, and that consequently they 
 must still remain on the Legation premises, the 
 Government ordered the Prefect of Police of 
 Bukarest to take the necessary steps for the 
 recovery of the cases in question and for the 
 examination of their contents. In pursuance of 
 this, the Prefect conferred with the U.S. Minister 
 Plenipotentiary, to whose charge had been com- 
 mitted the protection of German subjects in 
 Rumania and the guardianship of the premises 
 of the Imperial Legation. His Excellency was 
 good enough to authorise Mr. W. Andrews, his 
 
 4 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 Secretary of Legation, to accompany the Prefect 
 of Police in his search, as international custom 
 prescribes. ..." 
 
 The search was conducted on Sept. 22nd/0ct. 
 5th, 1916, at Bukarest. 
 
 ''Mr. Andrews and I," states the Prefect of 
 Police in his first proces-verbal of the same date, 
 "accompanied one another at 11 a.m. to the 
 premises of the German Legation at Bukarest, 
 Calea Victoriei No. 188, where we found present 
 the persons Michael Markus, porter, and x\ndrew 
 Maftei, servant, who had both been authorised 
 to remain in Bukarest and live as caretakers on 
 the Legation- premises, upon a request made by 
 the head of the departing diplomatic staff and 
 transmitted by the U.S. Legation. 
 
 "L the Prefect of Police, then explained to 
 Michael Markus the object of our visit and our 
 desire to conduct a search in the garden of the 
 Legation premises, and the said Michael Markus 
 did not deny that a box and several cases, of 
 which he professed not to know the contents, had 
 been buried in the Legation garden. ..." 
 
 Michael Markus' deposition is contained in a 
 second proces-verbal, drawn up on the same date 
 by the Prefect of Police. 
 
 "My name," he deposed, "is Michael Markus, 
 German subject, domiciled at Bukarest on the 
 premises of the German Legation, where I have 
 been in service 22 vears. . . . 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 "Either the clay before the departure of the 
 German diplomatic staff from Bukarest, or on 
 llie day itself, llerr von Rheinbaben, Councillor 
 of the Legation, ordered me to burn the flags and 
 anything else that might have been left lying 
 loose. The cases now in question were in a base- 
 ment room, whither they had been brought from 
 the German Consulate before the day on which 
 the mobilisation decree for the Rumanian Army 
 was published. When I drew Herr von Rhein- 
 baben's attention to these cases, he told me that 
 they must be buried. 
 
 ''After the departure of the staff, I asked Herr 
 Kriiger, Chancellor of the Legation'' (then 
 .attached to the U.S. Legation at Bukarest) 
 ''what I was to do with the cases. He replied 
 that they must be buried, and Herr Kriiger 
 himself, Andrew Maftei, and I proceeded to take 
 them and bury them in a trench we dug. I did 
 not know^ what the cases contained. I only know 
 that Herr Kriiger advised me to handle them 
 cautiously. As regards one of them — a box 
 wrapped in paper, and bearing the seal of the 
 Lnpcrial Consulate — I remember tliat on the day 
 before the mobilisation, or possibly on the day 
 itself, Herr Adolf (I forget his christian name,* 
 but I know he was Assistant Military Attache to 
 the Military Attache, Colonel Hammerstein) gave 
 me this box, and told me to bury it in the garden. 
 I helped for a moment at digging a hole, but as 
 I was very much taken up with my duties, it 
 
 * Herr Lu'cian Adolf is ihv <,rentien\an refcrre:! to. 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 ended in Herr Adolf burying the box himself. 
 He did not tell me what was in the box, which 
 he kept in his hand. I do not know where the box 
 came from or who had brought it. I set eyes on 
 it for the first time the day Herr Adolf asked me 
 to bury it in the garden. . . /' 
 
 Michael Markus' deposition was confirmed by 
 Andrew Maftei. 
 
 "At our request," the Prefect of Police con- 
 tinues in his first proces-verbal, "Michael Markus 
 fetched a spade and dug in the garden border 
 skirting the wall of the Legation building towards 
 the Rue Kosma, between the eighth and ninth 
 tree, counting from the corner of the building. 
 Here, at a depth of about 50 centimetres, the 
 digging brought to light first 50 'Bickford cords' 
 with charges, and then 50 metal boxes of an 
 elongated rectangular form. . . . 
 
 "At another spot in the garden, along the 
 party-wall dividing the garden of the Legation 
 from the next premises in the Rue Kosma, we 
 dug again, after Michael Markus had removed a 
 pile of firewood which covered it ; and this time 
 we brought to light a box of rectangular form, 
 wrapped in white paper, and bearing in red wax 
 the seal of the Imperial German Consulate at 
 Kronstadt. It also bore the following directions 
 in writing :— 
 By King's Messenger ! Very Secret ! Not to he 
 
 thrown 1 1 ! 
 
 Bukarest. 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 For Herr Kostoff, 
 
 To His Honour 
 
 The Colonel, Military Attache to 
 
 The Imperial Bulgarian Embassy at Bukarest, 
 
 Herr Samargieff. 
 
 "Under this first wrapper there was a second, 
 also of white paper, bearing the following direc- 
 tions, written in red pencil : — 
 
 Very Secret By Tela 
 
 To the Royal Colonel and Military Attache His 
 Honour Herr von 
 
 "The name had been rubbed out, but traces of 
 the letters Ham ... t . in (Hammerstein ?*) 
 can still be recognised on a close examination. 
 
 "Inside the box, above a layer of cotton-wool, 
 there was a typewritten note in German, to the 
 following effect : — 
 
 Herewith 4 tubes for horses and 4 for horned 
 cattle. For use as directed. Each tube is sufficient 
 for 200 head. If possible, administer direct through 
 the animal's mouth ; if not, in its fodder. 
 
 Should be obliged for a little report on success 
 with you. If there should be good news to report, 
 Herr KJs presence here for a day desirable. 
 
 "Beneath the layer of cotton-wool there were 
 six little wooden boxes of elongated form. In 
 each box there was a glass test-tube containing a 
 yellowish-looking liquid. . . .'' 
 
 "As appears from this proces-verbal," the Pre- 
 fect of Police adds in his covering report to the 
 
 * Colonel von Hammerstein being the German Military Attache at 
 Bukarest . 
 
- MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, "the discovery of 
 the explosives and of the packet containing the 
 phials of microbe-cultures, buried in the garden 
 of the German Legation, took place in the pres- 
 ence of Mr. W. Andrews and of Messrs. Michael 
 Markus, porter of the Legation premises, and 
 Andrew Maftei, servant in the said Legation. 
 Mr. W. Andrews signed, ne varietur, the paper 
 wrapper of the box containing the phials, which 
 bore the seal of the Imperial German Consulate 
 at Kronstadt, as well as the address of the con- 
 signees. He also signed the note in German found 
 inside the box, explaining how to use the liquid 
 contained in the phials. For my part, I sealed 
 with the seal of the Prefecture of Police the boxes 
 containing the cartridges of explosives, the packet 
 of fuses, and the boxes containing the phials. I 
 sent specimens of these to the proper laboratories 
 for analysis and experiment. . . ." 
 
 The infernal machines were sent to the Royal 
 .Military Pyrotechnical Laboratory, which re- 
 pDrted on them in the following letter to the 
 Prefecture of Police : — 
 
 "Kingdom of Rumania, 
 " Military Pyrotechnics, 
 "(Letter) No. 10472. 
 
 "Sept. 27th/Oct. loth, 1916. 
 "The explosives discovered at the German 
 Legation, forwarded to us for examination by the. 
 Prefecture of Police, consist of : — 
 
 "(i). Fifty cartridges formed of rectangular 
 
 9 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 boxes made of zinc sheeting — dimensions 20 x 7 
 X5 centimetres. Three of the main surfaces each 
 contain a priming-point, in order to allow of the 
 cartridge being primed in any position. 
 
 "These mine-cartridges weigh a kilogramme 
 each, and bear the mark : Donarit I. Kavalerie 
 Sprengpatronen. Sprengstoff A., G. Carhonit 
 Hamburg Schlebusch. 
 
 ''The explosive contained in these boxes belongs 
 to the order of high explosives with nitrate of 
 ammonium and trinitrotoluene (trotyl) and its 
 less nitrous derivatives as their base. 
 
 ''As a destructive agency, this explosive be- 
 longs to the category of dynamite with Kiesel- 
 guliv, one kilogramme developing 700 major 
 calories. 
 
 "As regards its destructive effects, it may be 
 sufficient to mention that 200 grammes of the 
 said explosive, that is, a quantity equivalent to 
 one-fifth of the contents of each box, if placed on 
 a railway track, would cause the destruction of it 
 over a length of one metre. 
 
 "The fifty kilogrammes might cause the des- 
 truction of a bridge-pier or of a large building, 
 serve to mine a road, and so on. 
 
 "(ii). Fifty fuses, each 2 metres long, and pro- 
 vided with a detonating cap containing 2 grammes 
 of fulminate of mercury. 
 
 "These fuses are of the kind commonly em- 
 ployed to cause an explosion either on wet or 
 dry ground, 
 
 "Although the mine-cartridges, as well as the 
 
 TO 
 
MICROBEXULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 caps and fuses, look in bad condition on account 
 of their having lain buried in earth, they are 
 nevertheless perfectly lit for use. 
 
 (S.) ''Lip:utenaxt-Colonel Philipp:scu, 
 
 "Director of* Pyrotechnics. (L.S.) 
 ''Sub-Lieutenant A. Pecuraru, 
 
 "Chemist in Chief and Managing 
 "Head of the Laboratory." 
 
 This was the report on the infernal machines. 
 The test-tubes, meanwhile, had been sent to the 
 Rumanian Institute of Pathology and Bacterio- 
 logy, and the Director, Dr. Babesh, reported to 
 the Prefect of Police upon them in the letter 
 which follows : — 
 
 "Institute of Pathology and Bacteriology. 
 "(Letter) No. 361. 
 
 "Bukarest, 
 "Sept. 28th/Oct. nth, 1916. 
 ''Mr. Prefect, 
 
 "In response to your letter No. 134003, of 
 Sept. 24th/Oct. 7th last, in connexion with which 
 you have been good enough to transmit to me 
 for analysis two stopped phials, each containing a 
 yellowish-looking liquid, I have the honour to 
 inform you that, after making the experiments 
 desired, I obtained the results set forth below. 
 
 "The Hquid found in the first phial, the stopper 
 of which was wrapped in red paper, secured by a 
 tag of thread twisted round the neck, was seen 
 under the microscope to contain a very consider- 
 able quantity of thin, oblong bacilli with slightly 
 
 II 
 
MICROBE -CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 undulated filaments. I applied subcutaneous 
 injections of this liquid to two guinea-pigs, which 
 died after thirty hours. I also made inoculations 
 in gelatine and potatoes. In these mediums the 
 culture developed a large quantity of colonies, 
 which were recognised under the microscope as 
 carbon bacilli. The coating of the organs and the 
 blood of the guinea-pigs in question also contain 
 a large quantity of bacilh, which present all the 
 characteristics of the carbonic bacteride, and the 
 same condition has been observed in the sections 
 of their organs (liver, spleen, intestines), so that 
 I can declare positivel}^ that this first phial con- 
 tains a very virulent culture of the anthrax 
 (carbon) bacillus. 
 
 "The liquid contained in the second phial, of 
 which the stopper and neck were wrapped in 
 white paper secured in the same way as in the 
 other case, reveals, under microscopic examina- 
 tion, a number of thin bacilli and short, thin 
 filaments resembling the glanders bacilli. Having 
 made inoculations of these in potato, I observed 
 to-day, being the third day since the inoculation 
 was made, that on one of the fields of culture 
 there had developed a thin bacillus and filaments 
 in colony form, of a transparent, mucous appear- 
 ance, but in great part dry, thin, and adhering 
 to the surface of the potato. It is possible that 
 this bacillus might be the glanders bacillus. I 
 applied injections of this liquid to horses, and 
 will communicate to 'you the results of these 
 experiments as soon as they are completed. 
 
 (Signed) ''Dr. Babesh, Director.'' 
 
 12 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 The results were duly reported in a second 
 letter from Dr. Babesh to the Prefect of Police of 
 Bukarest : — 
 
 "Institute of Pathology and Bacteriology. 
 "(Letter) No. 374. 
 
 "Bukarest, 
 
 "October 5/i8th, 1916. 
 "Mr. Prefect, 
 
 "In resumption of my letter No. 361, of Sept. 
 28th last, I have the honour to inform you that, 
 having now completed my investigations with 
 regard to the phials of microbe-cultures received 
 in connexion with your letter No. 134003 of 
 Sept. 24th, I have ascertained the following facts : 
 
 "(i). The phial wrapped in red paper con- 
 tained a culture of the carbon (anthrax) bacillus, 
 which has been identified by inoculations and as 
 a result of injections practised upon guinea-pigs. 
 
 "(ii). The phial wrapped in white paper con- 
 tained a culture of the glanders bacillus, which 
 has been identified by inoculations and as a 
 result of injections applied tp animals. 
 
 (Signed) "Dr. Babesh, Director/' 
 
 The implications of these discoveries are ex- 
 amined by the Rumanian Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs in his Note to Neutral and Allied Govern- 
 ments, to which the copies of the documentary 
 evidence are annexed. 
 
 "It has thus been proved," he writes, "in a 
 manner that is unfortunately beyond dispute, 
 
 13 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 that before our declaration of war against Austria- 
 Hungary, that is to say, at a period when the 
 Rumanian Government was observing a strict 
 neutraUty and maintaining normal relations with 
 the GerAian Empire, the staff of the Imperial 
 Legation violated all the rules of neutrality and 
 all the duties of diplomatic representatives by 
 introducing secretly into the Rumanian capital 
 considerable quantities of an extremely powerful 
 explosive, and bacillus-cultures w^hich were in- 
 tended for the infection of domestic animals, and 
 were in consequence likely to produce terrible 
 murrains, as well as maladies transmissible to 
 human beings. 
 
 ''There is no possible doubt as to the manner 
 in which the substances in question must have 
 been introduced into Rumanian territory. The 
 extremely rigorous measures of frontier police 
 which were taken b}^ the Rumanian Government 
 from the beginning of the European War and 
 w^ere continually strengthened at later dates, are 
 ample' proof in themselves that these explosives 
 and bacillus-culture^ were dispatched through 
 diplomatic channels — as is corroborated by the 
 seal of the German Consulate at Brasso, placed 
 upon the box of microbe-cultures — and that they 
 can only have reached the Imperial Legation 
 through the agency, of diplomatic couriers, pro- 
 tected by the special immunities attached to their 
 office. The names of the successive consignees of 
 the package of phials also make it possible to 
 ascertain the time-limits within which the said 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 cultures were imported into Rumanian territory. 
 The Bulgarian Military Attache, Samargieff, took, 
 up his duties on Sept. 28th/ Oct. nth, 19 13 ; Mr. 
 Constantine Kostoff, the delegate of the Bulgarian 
 railway administration to the Rumanian railw^ay 
 directorate, acted in this capacity .in Rumania 
 from Jan. 7/2oth, 1915, to Aug. 12/25 th, 1916, 
 when, two days before our declaration of war, he 
 was presented to the Rumanian Ministry for 
 Foreign Affairs as attache to the Bulgarian 
 Legation. Finally, Colonel von Hammerstein 
 joined the Imperial German Legation as Military 
 Attache on May 2/i5th, 1916. All three left 
 Rumanian territory on Aug. 2ist/Sept. 3rd, 1916, 
 and on Aug. 23rd/Sept. 5th following, in conse- 
 quence of the rupture of our relations with 
 Austria-Hungary's allies. 
 
 "Neither can there be any doubt as to the 
 object with which the said substances were 
 imported into Rumania, or as to the use for which 
 they were intended, for it can easily be under- 
 stood that these explosives and bacillus-cultures 
 could not have been introduced secretly from 
 Rumania into Russia, there being no German 
 diplomatic couriers to introduce them, and that 
 they were not intended, either, for transmission 
 to Germany's Balkan allies, since in that case 
 there was no difficulty in dispatching them direct 
 to the German Legations at Sofia or Constanti- 
 nople. It is thus evident that the explosives and 
 bacilli WTre to be employed in Rumania, most 
 probably in time of peace, since the Legation was 
 
MICROBE-CULTURE AT BUKAREST 
 
 requested to ' make a little report ' on the ' success ' 
 obtained, and to communicate the results through 
 the agency of 'Mr. K.' It is proved, in fine, that 
 in time of peace members of the German Legation, 
 protected by their immunities, were preparing, 
 in complicity with the members of the Bulgarian 
 Legation, to perpetrate, on the territory of a 
 friendly neutral state, criminal attempts against 
 the security of this state and against the lives of 
 its subjects. 
 
 ''The Rumanian Government feels it its duty 
 to protest solemnly against these criminal pro- 
 ceedings, and especially against the employment 
 of microbe-cultures — a dishonourable weapon, 
 certainly worse than the employment of poison, 
 which is forbidden in terms to belligerents by the 
 Fourth Hague Convention. It must also protest 
 against this unheard-of violation of the imperious 
 duties of loyalty and correct conduct which are 
 imposed by international law upon diplomatic 
 representatives in return for the prerogatives and 
 privileges which it guarantees them." 
 
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