RUMANIA: Unclean

In the outer office of the Rumanian Ministry of Agriculture, last week, clerks and undersecretaries pottered somnolently at their tasks. Into the quiet office marched two strangely hilarious young men with curiously mottled skin. They shook hands violently with everyone in the room, then demanded to see the Minister of Agriculture, C. Argetoianu. “My God!” screamed the Minister’s secretary, “Lepers! Unclean! Unclean!” Bravely he stationed himself before the door of his chief’s sanctum while panic-stricken clerks and minor officials, overturning chairs and tables, stampeded to the outer air. Prudent Minister Argetoianu remained behind his desk while the piebald lepers shouted maledictions at the government, protested at the food and living conditions in Rumania’s state lazaretto at Largeana, from which they had escaped. Gingerly, Rumanian gendarmes captured the gesticulating lepers. In a nearby pharmacy terrified government clerks tore off their clothes, gargled. scrubbed themselves with disinfectants. A moment later still other government clerks rushed in, shouting for chloride, plucking at their garments. A third leper had appeared at the Ministry of Health equally incensed at the food served in Rumania’s lazaretto.

All three lepers were returned to Largeana. While his office was being disinfected, Minister of Agriculture Argetoianu announced that conditions at the lazaretto would be investigated