To:
US Department of State
Frank Collins III, Desk Officer for Romania
US Department of State - Room 5220
2201 C St., NW
Washington DC 20520


Dear Mr. Collins:
	
	On June 7, 1998 about 7:20 PM, after a three-day trip through Western Romania, my adult son, Paul E. Bove, Publications Administrator of the International Law Institute in Washington, and I drove to the Nadlac douane on route E68 at the border between Hungary and Romania. We found a line of trucks about 2 miles long waiting to clear the border, but passed them and drove directly to the border post. There we were informed that the border post was closed to automobiles and directed to another crossing point..
	We drove back along E68 toward Arad, as the border guards directed us, and finally found a small sign directing us to turn north. the road soon degenerated to disjointed concrete or stone slabs and I became worried that this was not the proper road. A conversation with some convenient peasants assured me that it was, and we drove several miles further to find a douane on an East-West road at Turnu, Romania. By this time the sun was beginning to set, and I was beginning to worry about warnings that we had received about driving rural roads in this area after dark.
	The crossing point from Turnu, Romania to Battonya, Hungary does not appear on the Michelin map of Hungary and does not appear as an actual frontier crossing on the Cartographia map of Romania, so our alarm and bewilderment should be understandable. At the border our passports were examined and my son was found to be missing a receipt the was issued when we entered Romania near Oradea three days earlier. Apparently the receipt was issued in lieu of a visa, but it was not attached to our passport, nor were we told that it was important that we retain it. My son had thrown it out with currency exchange slips when we spent all out Romania money. After considerable tearing of hair over the absence of this slip, the guard solicited a small tip (100 Austrian Schillings) and created a new receipt. We were treated to a tour of Hungarian back roads, fortunately well signed, until we found the E68 again and did not reach our destination in Szeged until about 10 PM.
	I thus have two questions:
		1) Shouldn't there be some warning that cars are not allowed to cross on the main road 	from Bucharest to Hungary and the West?
		2) If this receipt was so important, shouldn't it have been attached to our passports like a 	visa, or , if that was not possible, shouldn't we have been informed of its importance?

	Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.

				Very Truly Yours,
				Roger Even Bove, Ph.D.
				Associate Professor
				rbove@wcupa.edu