The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1916. ROUMANIAN IMPORTANCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 76, 27 October 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1916. ROUMANIAN IMPORTANCE.

The news that the Russians are pointing into the aid of the Roumanians is comforting, and it is certainly probable that Russian divisions have been quietly collecting in the interior of Roumania so that there is every hope of Constantine’s prophecy being false. The Otago Daily Times discussing the situation says it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of the commodities with which a German occupation of Roumania would supply the enemy. “If Roumania did not kill a single enemy soldier, or take a foot of ohcmy land, her entry into the war would,” the Petroleum World said before the Roumanian decision in favour of the Allies was made, “deal a terrific blow at Germany, simply by bringing that country lace to face with a famine in petrol, lubricating oils, fuel oil, and even lamp oil.” Germany had been in the habit of securing from abroad the great hulk of her supply of these products. Her supply'of oil from America was cut off after the war broke out. She caluculated on obtaining, in part, what she required from her own wells, hut her main sources of supply were to be the Austrian province of Galicia, with a yearly production of nearly a million tons of oil, and Roumania, with a pre-war productionj of about 1,800,000 tons yearly. She | did not, make allowance for the Russian invasion of Galicia or for inter-, ferencc with the supply of oil from Roumania. The Russians conquered the Galician oilfields in September, 1 191-1, but upon their retirement they j ■cein to have left them in good con-j dition, easy for the Austrians toj utilise again for their own and Ger-| man benefit. But once more the Russians are in Galicia, and their capture of the great centre of Galician I oil production is regarded as assured. After the war broke out the Ron-, mauian Government for a time pro-j hibited the export of petrol and other j oil products, hut pressure from Germany and discontent over the loss by the oil industry of its markets brought about a change, and of 214.000 tons of oil products exported from Roumania in the first half of the present year, 201,000 tons went to Germany,- Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The German petroleum wells are estimated as producing about 140.000 tons a year, while lor two years before the war Germany had been importing petroleum products

at the ral« of 1,200,000 tons per annum. It may not be easy, the Times concludes, to say when Germany will be at the end* of her oil resources, but it is certainly Clear that not only is Roumania, as an enemy, capable of embarrassing Germany, but that she represents a rich prize which Germany may well consider worth a costly and determined effort to secure.