ROUMANIA’S DEFEAT AND. KRUPP’S TREACHERY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 18 September 1917, Page 6

ROUMANIA’S DEFEAT AND. KRUPP’S TREACHERY.

The report that Germany is following her usual tactics and levying blackmail on Roumania in the form of a “war contribution” of no less than 10 000,000, intensifies her treacherous ’ conduct to that country, since, as has just been revealed by a Frenchman, she is directly responsible for her rapid defeat. It is another of the many acts of treachery to be added to the heavy balance of the Krupp firm at Essen. The facts are given by Charles Normann in a very interesting article in the “Revue des Deux Mondes.” He says: “The world at large was puzzled by the rapid and overwhelming defeat of thf Roumanian Army, The solution of the puzzle lies l n *the field of optics. Everyone knows that the former friend of the Triple Alliance was provided with Krupp guns coming directly from Essen. But very few know that, with a really devilish foresight, the Prussian munitions purveyors wrecked the extremely delicate levelling instruments by filling them with water only, instead of a salt solutior whose purpose is to prevent the freer, ing of the liquid . Of course, had the Roumanian Army allied itself with the Central Powers, this little ‘oversight’ would have been corrected in due time. . . But as soon as the guns reached the cold mountain regions the diminutive glass tubes burst and we know the rest.”