The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1915. ROUMANIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 49, 1 March 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1915. ROUMANIA.

The' Roumanian Government having pretty clearly indicated that in due course lids important Balkan State will bo found fighting on the sidb of the Allies against Austro-Germau oppression, the “Near East” discusses the position; and in doing so, points out that not one of the many combatants in the world war now raging has entered upon the y struggle with national sentiment stirred in precisely the same way as that of the Roumanians. If, this writer says, the spirit of history is not dead between the Danube and the Carpathians, Roumaniai will draw the sword in the consciousness that she is taking one more step, possibly the final, in the consolidation of her national destiny. That destiny she has been working out for some sixteen centuries; all unconsciously at first, no doubt, for during more than half that period the Roumanian race, as it has been well expressed, pursued, like some underground river, a hidden course, only to emerge with undiminished vigor at the end. Roumanian national sentiment awakened in the thirteenth century, and from that'time has set its face towards the goal of a united Roumanian race. For a few brief months in the year 1600, when the conquests of Michael the Brave made him ruler over Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia, Ehe ideal seemed to have been realised, but Michael’s triumph was short-lived. The story of the Roumanians shows some strange vicissitudes since the Hungarians annexed Transylvania, in the eleventh century. Before Michael of Wallachia attained his greatness he had first to rout the Turks; but, finding more scope for his ambitions in the north, he made peace with the Sultan through the mediation of the English Ambassador at Constantinople. The Turk remained the chief enemy, and towards the end of the seventeenth century the first overtures for help were made to Russia by the two principalities of Wallachia ■and Moldavia. From 1711 to #lßl2 Russia’s quarrel with Turkey was prosecuted more often than not at the expense of the Roumanians, although alleviations for the latter wore also sought. The Roumanians, however, had to pay dearly in many ways for the somewhat oppressive protection given them from Turkish oppression. The independence that they wanted was not obtained for them, while they lost Bukowina. to the Austrians in 1777, and Bessarabia to the Russians by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812. And at this timei the national sentiment of the Roumanians goes nut to Hie people of their own race in Transylvania. Not only are they united , with them by ties of blood, hut they know that the blow they are preparing to strike will ho an act of deliverance from a hostile yoke. The lot of the Roumanians in Hungary has been far from

satisfactory. Tu offering them concessions since the outbreak of the war the Magyar Govenment lias tacitly admitted the fact; but not even the chastening of an unsuccessful war is likely to make the Magyar an ideal ruler of an alien nationality. It is equally true, however, that while lighting for the liberation of Transylvania the .Roumanians will not be oblivious of the fact that their national aspirations will remain unrealised so long as Bessarabia, with nearly, a million and a half Roumanian inhabitants, forms part of Russia. They will do well not to let this question exercise them overmuch at this juncture. When the time comes for the settlement, after the war, the world will hope to see the principle of nationalities rigorously adopted in the delimitation of international frontiers. Bessarabia, which was part of the old Moldavian principality, was claimed by Russia at a time when its possession meant more to her in her scheme of world politics than it does now, or will do after the war. The injustice involved in its retention was recognised in 1856, 1 when after the Crimean War the southern part was restored to Roumania. Russia, how. ever, obtained this territory again when by the Treaty of Berlin she secured for Turkey tire Dobruja district, in order that it might be exchanged for the part of Bessarabia which she had previously lost. Fortunately, between Roumania and Russia there exists no bitterness of feeling engendered .by sanguinary conflicts for the district in question. Both the relations between the two countries and the Tzar’s temperament justify the expectation that Russia will do the right thing at the right moment.