 Petre Vasiliu-Năsturel observes that from a heraldic point of view, on the French as well as the revolutionary Wallachian flag, the middle stripe represents a heraldic metal (argent and or respectively).Other writers believe that the tricolor was not an imitation of the French flag, instead embodying an old Romanian tradition.This theory is supported by a note from the revolutionary foreign minister to Emin Pasha