The Taihape Daily Times AND wAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1916. THE WAR IN ROUMANIA.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 15 November 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND wAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1916. THE WAR IN ROUMANIA.

(With which is incorporated The Tailiapc Post and Waimarino News).

Yesterday’s cables inform the world that Mackensen’s army in the Dobrudja is in'full retreat, that it is demoralised, that it is moving under disastrous conditions, that disease is rampant, all owing to reinforcements urgently needed, not having arrived. This causes two very pertinent questions to rise uppermost, the first is, why did reinforcements fail to succour Mackensen after he had just upon conquered the whole of the territory he was working in? The other is, what real military advantage, if any, has resulted to Germany from the Dobrudja campaign The answer to the former will probacy be apparent in consid’siderations of the latter. This campaign, it cannot be denied, w'as a remarkably well-planned part of the strategic scheme for punishing Roumania, and at the same time keeping the Berlm-Constantinople road from jeopardy. The failure of the combined plans seems to be explainable by the apparent fact that the task was altogether too great for the number of men available. Mackensen failed to

achieve any important success in his first thrust; thfere was then a luir while reinforcements were brougnt from the Hungarian side, where Fatkenhayn was trying to break through the passes of the Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps. With the arrival of reinforcements Mackensen drove back the Roumanians and compelled them to destroy the only bridge over the Danube into Roumania proper. The slaughter wrought among Mackensen’s men, however, was so terrible that he found himself too weak to risk following • what he termed the beaten Roumanian army. The Roumanian command saw that the Germans were no longer able to avail themselves of distinct advantages, and having received some reinforcements they turned on Mackensen and have succeeded in driving him back, inflicting the most terrible slaughter, de.

priving him of .one-third of his effectives. Disease is rampant in the remainder, and they are fleeing, a nemoralised mob, from before the pursuing Roumanians. It can have no military advantage to Germany to •have conducted such a campaign; the country overrun is rapidly being retaken, the loss of effective men is enormous, very valuable time has been lost, but what must be the effect ca the moral of the Turks and Bulgars, who largely figured with the AusircGermans under Mackensen’s command? Where are Mackensen’s armies going for safety? Their condition cannot be much improved unless reinforcements arrive, and to draw from Falkenhayn’s troops may mean disaster, for he has not sufficient force himself to push back the Roumanians through the passes of the mountain frontier. This means that he has to j be the victim of the pushing process. If cables received indicate the true position, it seems certain that Germany has received another terrible blow to her prestige among her friends. Germany seems to be making great preparations, by the massing of men and guns on the Russian front, and we are told that this is to represent Hindenburg’s supreme and final effort. It is apparent to the least informed that such an effort must be made quickly and that results must be achieved almost immediately, for the time is already at hand when it is impossible to continue an active campaign on the ice plains or Russia. Then, while Hindenburg is gathering his forces with sufficient reserves for a Russian thrust, it would be interesting to know what Falkenhayn and Mackensen will be doing without reinforcements, for it is obvious that there are none, even to save Mackensen and the loss of prestige that must result from this debacle. What will Austria be doing against Italy, whose men are knocking at the doors of Trieste, and are on the point of taking possession of tne whole Irridenta What will be happening in Macedonia, for Sarrail is not going to vegetate there; it is nonsense to believe that a handful of Greeks are the real cause of no forward movement from Salonika. Then despite German confidence about the Western front being invulnerable, it is distinctly apparent that no winter weather is going to <stay the that is proving the vulnerability of 1 all that the Hun high command is boasting about, and there is not lacking the feeling, even among Germans, that a move back in France has to be taken in the near future. The enemy is waiting and Roping that the Allies will put up shutters for the winter so as to give them the only chance that might be left them. It cannot be denied, despite all pessimists say, that there is a visible shortage of men in the enemy ranks; that they are quite unequal to the task they may be put to perform. In the meantime, Roumania is safe, and her armies are inflicting most deadly losses in the ranks of their assailants. The Donrudja campaign has secured no mill tary advantage to German arms, hut on the other hand it must result in a loss of prestige with the Turks and Bulgars, besides letting Constantine realise that Roumania cannot be wiped off the map in fifteen days nor in fifteen months by the wish of Ins bullying brother-in-law. It is probable that Constantine’s confidence in German boasts is now just a little shaken.