The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1916. THE POSITION OF RUMANIA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2860, 26 August 1916, Page 8

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1916. THE POSITION OF RUMANIA

Past . happenings have led mqsfc people to view with suspicion and Histrust items of news and the speculations of correspondents which filter through from the Balkans. To day's expectations are as frequently as not contradicted to-mor-row or the day after, and in consequence the news now reaching us concerning the probability of Ru-mania-joining forces''.with the Entente -Powers does not raise any very; high hopes.'. .Yet it. cannot bo lightly .passed, over. . In the .early days.of the war the intervention of Rumania on our side- would . have [given the victory to the Venizelos Party in Greece and ended the railsitting policy of King Constantine; it would, have-saved Serbia from the hands of the' Bulgarian 'fratricide, and it would have blocked the way of the Kaiser and his gang to Constantinople and the Middle Erst. The entrance of Rumania into the war on our side to-day would still mean much.. The Austrian forces facing Russia and Italy would be weakened in. order to find an army to withstand Rumania, and Russia and Italy might speedily inflict further smashing, local defeats on their' Austrian foe. Bulgaria's impudent and surprising invasion of Greece is a venture made possible by: the neutrality of Rumania.' This attitude of neutrality is one of-the.-mysteries of the war, and Rumania • is undoubtedly the dark- horse of the Balkans. She has played up till now the unheroic part of a "Facing-both-ways," and this in spite of a strong- -public opinion in favour of the Entente' Powers. There is a strange , unnaturalness in the. attitude of Rumania. The "eternal", -enemies of N Rumania have been Austria and Turkey, and she is passive while these Powers are fighting her friends. Rumania and 'Italy are twin sisters. Rumania in a sense is an Italy in the Balkans, for the people are descended from a Roman colony- set up iu-the far north for the defence of the old Empire, in the time of Trajan. -The language spoken by the people is akin to that spoken by Cicero and Virgil 2000 years ago. For long centuries this isolated Roman people were under the iron heel of Turkey, and had no national existence. But Rumania is now an independent State, and, on a population basis, the most powerful Balkan State, and.she owes her national existence and independence very largely to Russia. In 1877 Rumania repaid Russia by rendering signal heln to Russia in her war against Turkey. Russia, when this war was over, deprived her young friend of. territory which cvo'ked from Dis-' Raeli the remark at 'the Berlin Conference that "political ingratitude is often the reward of the greatest service." But time has enabled the' Rumanians to remember Russia's greater service in helping' them to independence and to forget Russia's lesser wrong. The real enemy of Rumania for years has been : Austria. Rumania, like Italy, has its "unredeemed lands" under the iron yoke of Austria, and the redemption of those land's is the goal of both nations. There are 4,000,000 people speaking the Rumanian language; and bound to Rumania by the bond of nationality, living under the Austrian flag, in territory contiguous to Rumania, and they arc treated like helots and _ serfs by Austria. A Magyar minority has driven the Rumanian language from the schools and robbed the people of adequate representation in Parliament. The bitter cry of a "Rumanian irredenta" has-rung for long in the ears of patriots like Jonescu, the brilliant Leader of the Opposition in Rumania, and they .look upon the present war as an opportunity to intervene, for the redemption of their brethren under Austria's heel. In January of last year Jonesclv in proposing the health of our King, in the presence of Mr. SetonWatson, said: "Britain is fighting for us, and so much the worse for us if to the very end she should fight for us without us." Rumania may yet.pay heavily for her failure to strike for the emancipation of her people in Austrian lands and for the making of a larger Rumania. Her inaction has led to the formation of a larger Bulgaria, and Bulgaria has a relentless hatred of Rumania because she forced on Bulgaria the humiliating Treaty of Bucharest at the close of the second Balkan war. Bulgaria will take the first chance of settling an old score with Rumania. A partial but not complete explanation of Rumania's unnatural inaction in this war may be given in a few words. Intervention on her part at the outset of the war would have been difficult through lack of gunpowder and guns. Rumania had made Germany ner market for munitions, and when the war broke out Germany would not let her have the munitions she had already paid for, and the stock of munitions she had would not have lasted three months if she had entered into the war. Prudence might ■ have delayed her entrance into the- war; as it delayed Italy.;iad the throne of Rumania been true to her interests and aspira-

tions she would have found -a door in Russia for the entrance of munitions. But the throne of Rumania, when the war broke out was filled by .a member of the Hohenzollern srroup, and a member of that family co-day fills the throne. King Carol and his gifted wife, known in literature as "Carmen Sylv-a,". did much in many; ways to_ advance Rumania, but in foreign diplomacy they were Germans first and Rumanians sec-' ond. When the war broke out King Carol played the part of a puppet of the Kaiser, and summoned his Crown Council and told them that they were bound by treaty to fight for Austria, as Italy was bound by treaty. The Council demurred to fchis,>aiid demanded a study of the text of the treaty. The King whs confounded to find that the treaty did not bind them. He next argued that as Italy was intervening so they must intervene. But he was further confounded by the news that reached his Council that Italy was not intervening. Driven into a corner, the King, furious with anger, said it was bitter to him to be "isolated in a country in which one is not a native." He was thus checked by his Council, and when he took a vote of h;s army officers only 110 out of 6COO favoured his proposal of a war with Russia. It is said that chagrin and disappointment over the failure of his pro-German schemes shortened his life. The present King Ferdinand has profited by his uncle's foolishness, and has been careful, to hide any pro-Gor-man bias, and as his wife is a 'daughter of the late Duke of Edinburgh and a cousin of our King, she may have helped him in doing so. Rumania may yet vindicate her character by remembering the pit from which she was dug out and come out and fight for tho preservation of weak Powers crushed by the despot. • .