The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1915. WAR DEVELOPMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1915. WAR DEVELOPMENTS.

This morning's cables should serve to lighten the feeling of anxiety that has recently been felt in consequence of the intense gravity of the situation, especially concerning the operations in the Balkans. Rounmnia has at last stated her terms for joining the Serbians and attacking the Bulgarians. Her stipulation, as stated in a Times and Sydney Sun special cable message, was that 400,000 troops of the Allies should be sent to assist the Serbians, and to this France and Britain have agreed, thus enabling Roumania to concentrate the whole of her forces at the Carpathians. The statement which comes from Petrograd' concerning the interview with the Special envoy from the Roumanian Foreign Office is also of interest. The envoy states that the army and navy at his country are wholly on the side of the Allies, and that he is convinced Roumania will shortly abandon her neutrality. Already she has concentrated 320,000 troops, and her army is increasible up to 1,100,000. With an adequate supply of munitions such a force would easily be a deciding factor in the conflict, so that the prospects of the Allies seem much brighter than was the case last week. Roumania cannot be blamed for making sure that she could safely oppose the Austro-Germans, but with the assurance of Russian, French, and English assistant she need have no further fear of facing the consequences of intervention, and it is to be hoped tiiat she will act promptly and rigorously. Italy may be relied on to do all in her power in the Balkans war zone. Her fleet 53 assisting in the coastal bombardment, and in the latest cables she is stated to be willing to make sacrifices by sending troops if urgently required, Greece is still wobbling, German influence being the chief obstacle to her joining the Entente, but it is evident that there is a very strong desire on the part of the people to support Serbia. The latest news from this quarter is to the elltct that if the Allies will hind 1100,000 in Macedonia the Greek.-, will, of their own accord, a*k to join the Entente. As the Allies have agreed to scud a force of 400,000 at Roumanians request, that should satisfy Greek requirements. No doubt King Constantino will oppose intervention as long as possible, hut it is probable that the people will settle the question for him. Meanwhile the Allies are more than holding their own on the Western front, and Russia is meeting with success in the East, while the Italians are engaged a most sjiiguinary battle against the Austrian?. The week opens witli signs of the general position being decidedly cheering, though the gravity of the crisis has not yet passed. We must be content to seo a rift in the dark clouds, trusting that it presages brighter and better prospects for the cause we have so much at heart.

cold-Wooded execution of a nurse who, with her staff, had worked hard in tending German wounded soldiers alter the occupation of Brussels. Had she been n spy she could not have been worse treated, but she was a lady reared in a home of culture and piety, and possessed of those humane, womanly instincts that have raised the sex to a high pinnacle of honor and esteem. Her crime, in the eyes of her executioners, was that of a traitor, hut in the eyes of the civilised world she was and ever will he regarded as a martyr in the cause of oppressed humanity. Miss Cavell at her trial admitted befriending English and French soldiers and facilitating the departure of Belgian subjects. She probably knew that in so doing she ran great risks, for she was disobeying the orders of the enemy in the possession of the city, but her desire to save the lives of others superseded all thought .of personal safety, On this point.Lord Lansdowne remarks that doubtless she was liable to punishment, but she might have received a measure of mercy which no civilised country would refuse to a brave and patriotic woman who was devoting her life to alleviating the sufferings of others. Germans, however, are no longer regarded as belonging to civilisation, and if any testimony .were required on this matter (which it»is not) there is ample demonstration in the manner in which Miss Cavell's so-called trial was carried out, as well as in the terrible manner in which her brains were eventually blown out ny means of an officer's pistol. Arrested, cast into prison, deprived of legal assistance before-her trial, she was condemned and led out to execution. It was only at the last moment that her strength gave way and she fell in front of the firing party. It was wisely ordered that when she fell she lost consciousness and so passed to the Great Beyond unaware of the means by which her murder was accomplished. The Chaplain's account shows that her last moments were full of pathos, heroism, and ■ Christian fortitude that will live in history. Thai the American Ambassador did all in his power to avert her fate seems beyond question, hut the brutal officers did not hesitate to lie to. him by stating on the day before tha consummation of the tragedy that so sentence had been given, and even then tried to brazes the falsehood until finally obliged to admit the truth. This treatment of the American Ambassador' should convince the United States of the contempt in which she is held by the Germans. No greater stimulus to recruiting could be given than by this latest horror, which makes the blood of all humane people boil over with indignation. To those who have not yet seen any reason to enlist the blood of this foully-murdered nurse cries out, if not for vengeance, then for decisive means for preventing such monstrouß fiends from over-riding the earth and treating their foes worse than venomous reptiles. Canada views the crime in this light, and so should every part of the Empire. It waß reported in (Friday's cables that, at the instigation of tha Pope, the Kaiser had been induced to suspend the Governor of Brussels, but on Saturday we learned that this brutal commander has notified a further campaign of horrors, so it is evident that, "Kultur" is in full swing. Surely there must be a day of reckoning. May its advent be speedy!