RIVER AND MARINE TRANSPORT DIVISION (RUMANIAN MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R008400190001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 21, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION u a"s OFFICIALS (Tax 25X1A
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ' REPORT NO.
INFORMATION REPORT CD NO.
COUNTRY Rnmania.
SUBJECT River and Marine Transport Division
(Rumanian Ministry of Transport)
25X1A
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF
!NFO.
Fj'3
DATE DISTR, 21 August 1951
NO. OF PAGES 6
O. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO. 25X1X
ISTATE 4
ARMY"-
I. General
1. The PCA (Ports and Waterways organization) of Rumania was dissolved
4 April 1951, and its place was taken by the River and Marine Trans-
port Division of the Rumanian Ministry of Transport, Three other
Rumanian State organizations suffered the same fate at the times
they were CFR (Caile Ferate Romania - Rumanian Railroads), RATA.
(Administratia Transporturilor Cu Autovehicule - Freight and
passenger road transport organization), and Civil Aviation,
In addition, the Ministry of Communications, under which these or-
ganizations had operated, was renamed the Ministry of Transport,
2. The new Ministry took on the duties of the four organizations that
were dissolved, Source did not know precisely in what may CFR,
RATA and Civil Aviation were incorporated into the new Ministry.
He known only that the entire work of the former Pa is now done
by a Directorate General under the new Ministry, called River and
Marine Transport Division, Some of the PCA personnel was taken
over into the new organization which replaced it.
3. The general scope of the River and Marino Transport Division is
that of the former parl. It cannot be properly understood without
reference to the position of Sovromtransport, now the most important
transport organization in Rumania. From a study of Sovrontrannport
privileges it immediately also becomes evident abet the Division
is and is not in a position to do,
xlmaN
IMR
a. Position of Sovromtransport
This company received a 30 year conceabion for all forms of
transport (including coastal shipping), on 1 January 19510
The concession includes the right to make use of practically
all port installations such as qualm, warehouses, stores and
silos. Furtherithe company awns almost all the shipping plying
both on the Danube and the Black Sea, (The small number of
vessels that have remained the property of the River and Marine
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Transport Division are used for the direct needs of the Division
and for portivaMk. Some of these are rented to Savromtranspert
/teatime to time.)
The company also owns most of the shipyards on the Danube and
Black Sea coast, to an extent that even repairs needed by
vessels owned by tbs Transport Division have to be carried out
in Sovramtransportos shipyards.
b. Pr_irat_rtiveJLAtheRiver and Marine Transport Divisian
Administration of the ports. Surveillance of navigation
conditions in the Danube, inoluding the control of the silting
up of water ways, checkiag of navigation charts maintenance
and repair of port installatices.
Organization of wovic at the ports, inoludivg mechanical in..
stalIations and port labor. (See under II and III).
Administrative wodc in cooneotion with the Sovromtransport con..
'session and the hiring out. of the remaining vessels and port
warehouses. Administiatim and exploitation of gravel and sand
deposits. (See below)o
It emerges clearly from these facts that the River and Marius
Transport Division is in effect a Port adminixtration authority
and has little to do with transport despite its name.
II. ..apnizationarateRivrrirZ_end)b.rineTranertDivisions
The orgenizationis builtupasrt OW*4
10 Menagemeet: A General Manager who coordinates thole** of the
Dion, four assistant general managers eat& responsible for one
or more branches of the workq
2. Departments:
a. Services Department: Dividod into the following seations
Meehanical Use and repair of mechanical installations in the
ports.
Commercial On a site' at kilometer 373 of the Danube9 gravel and
IM-r?ar-eartained from the river bed. This is an important enter-
prise as these materials serve for tae nanufaeture of a specially
resists:it concrete used for fortifiostions and landing grounds for
airplanes. (See miscellaneous information below.) The work is
carried out by means of dredgers and about 40 to 50 barges for
transport. The Conwereisa Department is chiefly occupied with this
work, tut also prepares tae agreements for the hiring out of sitee.
warehowlesp part installaUons and vessels. The department also
deals with the Sovromtrarsport concession which pays 50 peroent
of its profits as the purchase price of the concession.
Handling of freight . One of the main tasks of the fornor PCA was
%o reorganize port labor tn suoh a vaythat it could be rapidly
? directed to any point at vhich it was required. Work is normally
planned ahead in s000rdanos with the instructions given 'by the
Movement of Shipping branch. The organization has been brought to
such a pitch that it is new enough to =Ice a telephone call for
:several hundred atevedorea to be sent from Galati to Giurgiu.
for instance9 should the need suddenly arise. It is obvicully
diffioult for a port admieistration authority such as the
"Transport Division" to continue carrying out their function, which
belongs more properly, to a genuine transport organization. Sovrom.
atooinsists that the handling of freight should be channelled
? through its organization.
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Movement of Shipp1n_ - This branch directs the movements of
iKJ.pping in accordance with space available in the ports, the
water level in the rivere Appearance of shoals, at cetera,
maintains the hydrographic charts indicating the depth of the
water in different sections of the river and nupervises navigation
signals?
b. Technical Departments Divided into the following sections:
Ship buildin - Source had no information concerning the scope of
{h i8 sec on.
Ship maintenance - Source had no information concerning the scope
s sectia:
Purchaces e Prepares projects for the mechanisation of tho ports.
out a scheme according to which 12 mechanical cranes
are to be imported from Switzerland and the USSR during the next
two years.
CO Plannine!Enel
Plana the extraction of gravel and sand from the Danube, port
facilities in connection with the movement of shipping, purchases
and repairs and the handling of freight, The plans are then usually
Sent to the CSP (State Planning Commiasion) for approval. Source
stated that in 1950 the CSP chucked two similar plane presented
by:the PCA and by Sovromtransport respectively. Being charged
with all transport arrengements Sovromtransport must necennarily
aleo occupy itself with the services listed above. Source was not
familiar with the number or names of any such departments vithin
Sovromtransport tteaf
do Financial D!mtment: Source had no details.
CO Su De rtmant: Source had no detailn. (Source stated,
c en a Ministry of Supply had been created in Rumania.)
3. allmal Executives
While the PCA till operated there were five regional subdivisions
under ite control. In fact the PCA (like the Tranaport Division me)
was really the central policy making organization for the regional ex-
ecutive amine. Source is of the opinion that the regional executives
will remain as they will have to continue to carry on the same function
under the Transport Division as under the-PCA, The regional executives
were, both in principle and in practice, autonomous units with their
own budgets. These budgets are derived from the income of the ports
situated in the executives? area, including the payments made by
SGvrntnpoz' ti aoztount of its concessione In this way the practical
administration was actually carried out by these executives of course
under the general direction of the central office in Bucharest, Which
does not actually deal with anything but general problems? There are
the following regions: Constanta? Sulina? Galati (with a subdivision
for Braila), Oiargiu and Orsova. The Sulina region le, or was, also
known as the Danube Maritime Region.
III. Vessele and Freight
1. General Obeervaticnal Source was not femiliemb with any technical
NalWar--M-16cernge vessels plying on the Danube or the Black Sea.
He was acomainted in a general elei with the loading and unloading, an
the Danube, of Teasels; with the number of vessels involved and their
tonnages; and the port labor capacities.
2, Ownership and carried by the Danube:
There
ax.".-rftW-FaVeliti es o
vea1 on
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a. Vessels belonging th?jaL
There are 110 to 50 barges, including some open ones, used for
the transport of 'gravel and sand from the site at Kilometer 373
on the Danube. Ten barges are rented to Sovromtransporto
Twenty open barges rented to Sovromtranaporto
bo _Vessels belonging to
There are 350 barges of both types with a total tonnage of about
3000000. (Source stated that the Planning Department orders for
the year 1951 were that the Sovromtransport must carry a total of
150,000,000 kilometer-tons and the PCA vessels a total of
31,5000000 kilometer-tons.) As Sovromtransport has a concession
for all river and sea transport, it is the carrier for all Rumanian
state enterprises and institutions, including
Iron are from the USSR, coming from Galati, and Carried to
Reaita vie Orsova,
Building and other tither,
Cereals,
Oil,
Industrial equipment.
Twenty.five tugs varying from 200 to 1,200 horsepower. (There are
only two or three with a horsepower of 1,000 to 1.0200.) There is
also one 1,800 horsepower tugs repairs on which should be completed
shortly. Source could recall the names of only two of the tugs:
ALEXANDRU CEL BUN and ARHANGELSK.
e.Veuels belonging to the SDOP:
There is the USSR commercial fleet of river tugs, and.is under
the authority of the Port Administration as far as its regulations
are concerned? The following facts may be noted concerning the
freight carried by these vessels:
The Russian vessels normally carry iron ore when they leave
Galati, which has been brought there by rail from Russia. The
ore is shipped on large 8054on trucks known as "Pulmeneo
Where a consignment of ore is intended for Rumania it is loaded
on-Sovromtransport vessels, but if it is to continue to one of
the other satellite countries it is carriedon Russian vessels.
Russian vessels carrying mineral ores go to Csepel (Hungary),
Comarno and Bratislava (Czechoslovakia)0
Russian vessels also frequently carry cereals from Rumania
to Vienna, and firewood to Budapest. On their return journey
from Hungary, Czechoslovakia or Austria via Galati the Russian
boats usually carry bauxite, machinery and occasionally trucks
The port of Constants is so stacked with building timber in-
tended for Russia that there is no room to unload additional
consignments. Apart from timber, large consignments of sugar
have been loaded on Russian 'vessels at Constant* for an unknown
destinationo
do Vessels belenuimaiLEVE (Csech-owned barges)
These vessels arrive empty to load cereals which Czechoslovakia
be in Rumania. Fifty percent of these purchases are carried in
Csech bottom, although Sovromtransport objected to this arrange-,
mente
eo Vessels belanuillejn!gyst (the Hungarian Sovromtransport)
The Hungarian barges arrive carrying cement, cereals and animal
fodder to Braila, where Hungary maintains three sea-going vessels
of boo to 500 tone capacity each? The freight brought by the
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barges is transshipped to these vessels and carried via the
Upper Dandbe and the Blaek Sea to unknown destinations. The
barges take on building timber and return to Hungagy from Braila?
30tershm.i_Cerrand'etjAt_toLnissels n the Black Sea: No details are
MiIMENELYMI.40.148.1?1111????????????=1?10....1.0 ?
own to ource0
Ivo gEgusuus1101 in the Portl
1. Mechanised work:
The PCA had only 25 cranes in all of Rumaniags ports. Source does
not know bow ma crane Soeromtransport ouzo. He does knowa howevera
that mechanisation has not advanced far yet, and that it will still
take considerable time. Tho purchasing department of the former PCA
had intended to buy 22 additional cranes over a period of two yearsa
but none of these arrived. The heavy labor is still done by hand.
This is one reagon why the entezQprises had to be nationallseda as it
is now easier to estimate ahead the amount of labor avallablee
2. Labor:
4111MOVORIM=ClE?
Labor capacity at the varioue.ports is estimated as followa:
Constanta
Galati
Braila
Giurgim
Corabia
Turnu-Severin
Orgova
49000 tone a day
29000 tons a dey
2,000 tuns a day
403 tons a day
500 tons a day
200 to 300 tone a dAY
1,000 tons a day
The port of ?arable: is intended. to replace Orsovas which the Rumanian
tugs can only reach by maneuvering through the perilous Carpathian
gorges This is ?epee:J*13y difficult for tugs engaged in towing barges
heavily loaded with iron ore. Corabia is situated in the plain and
is particularly useful for the unloading of minerals? It is intended
to increase its labor capacity until 1,000 tons of goods a day can be
handled there.
V. Mieceilaneous Infornation
1. In the middle of the Danube, opposite the port of Giurgiva there in
an island occupied by the army where building has been continously
in programs. Foundations are being laid for a bridge on the shore
opposite the islands, and neither bridge nor island may be approached
by the public under any circumatances. Source obtained these facts
from a PCA engineer?
2. Near Midiap where the Danube-Black Sea Canal opens into the pea a
covered halebor for submarines is being built. Source learned the
from the PCA engineer referred to above, but had direct knowledge
of a possibly related events the hiring of PCA dredges by army
officers for woe* near Midia.
3.. Two-day military maneuvers were held on the Danube in September 1950.
All traffic between Cernavoda and Braila uas atopped during this periods,
and the PCA was required to make all its vessels available for the
maneuvers. There have bean no similar maneuvers since.
40 The earliee plan to widen the river Siret into a canal that would
permit barges to go as far as Bac:au has been set asides probably because
the Russians have decided to establish a central observatory in that
area. Source thinks that this will take at least ten years to builS.
2"-
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APPENDIX
Name
Oheorghe Bore,
Engineer
Curocikin
Evdochimov
Outchin
Ghsorgheade?
Engineer
Gheorghe Mihail,
Engineer
Nicolas Mihail
Constantin Marin
.Predingher?
Engineer
Storer
Assistant Engineer
Brener Wolff,
Engineer
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Offtce
Chief of the Purchase
Branch of the River and
Marine Transport
Division
Manager of River Depart-
ment of Sovromtransport
General Manager of
Sovromtransport
Manager of the Marine
Department of Sovrom-
transport?
Head of the Planning
Department of the Trans-
port Division?
Assistent General
Manager of Transport
Division?
Head of Technical De-
partment of Transport
Division
Head of a section of the
Planning Department of
the Transport Division?
General Manager of the
Transport Division?
Head of the Mechanisation
Section of the ,Transport
Division
Chief engineer of Sovrorn-
preecterA?
asszjaloa.
25X1A
50 years old, tall, thin
greying hair, and a Communist?
45 years old, tall and heavy,
dark. Russian? Disagreeable
and boorish? Was formerly a
submarine commander?
60 year* old, white haired?
Russian? Very capable and
intelligent? Well mannered
and affable?
55 years old, tall and heavy;
Russian. Disagreeable and cunt?
60 years old, medium height,
grey? Formerly a manager of
the SRD (Societe Roumaine
Dentbienne). Not a Communist?
110 to 42 years old, tall and
dark, Very intelligent
and capable?
50 years old, big and strong,
dark. Jew. Was the General
Manager of the former PCA.
50 years old, small and thin,
dark. Was a member of Stock
Exchange, formerly a Party
mentor? Headed Planning De-
partment in PCA0
45 years old, medium height,
brown haired, wears glasses?
Communist?
44 years old, tall and heavy,
dark? Specialist?
years old, tall greying?.
Highly qualified? Has 150
engineers working under him?
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