THE BALKANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1916, Page 5

THE BALKANS.

GERMAN" CLAIM?. . London. 7)ec ii. The situation bc.'ore Bucharest is black indeed if German claims are accepted. The decisive battle, they say, was fought at Argesu on Sunday, and that the Russians and Roumanians wero defeated. The Hermans are al*o recovering the ground lost smith-west of Bucharest, where they were driven back on Saturday by the Roumanian offensive. The Germans are now within range of the big guns of Bucharest. General von Mackcnsen has assumed the chief command, and claims that the Roumanians have suffered bloody losses. The advance to the plain has also simplified the commissariat problem since the greater part of the maize crop has been captured, in addition to large stocks of wheat, petrol, wool, metal, and salt, much of whMi is loaded in carts. The German advance on Targovista brings them to the outskirts of the oil nvea. The richest oilfield is in the Prahova valley, between Ploesti and the Prcdeal Pass. During l!)i."> Roumanla exported +29,000 tons of refined oil and oil products, practically all to Germany and Austria., but only 3 per cent, of this was petrol, which the Roumanians treated as contraband. At present the stock of petrol in Roumaniu is about a million toils. If j the Roumanians are able to demolish the wells a'nd machinery, it will be six months before the Germans are able to extract oil. • The only redeeming feature of the news is the fact that the Russian army has effected a junction with the Roumanians before Bucharest. It must be hoped that the Russians will be able to throw in further reinforcements at the danger points, CONTINUED SERBIAN SUCCESS. ' Wellington, Dee. 0. The High Commissioner reports under date, London, Dec. 5, 8.15 p.m.:— * A French official message says:— Eastwards of the Cerna the Serbians, following Sunday's success, reached the borders of Stanivina. All the enemy founter-attacks were repulsed with sanguinary losses During Sunday and Monday the Allies captured five cannon und tliree trench mortars. Northwards at Paralovo the 'French and Serbians both progressed equally. BULGARIA'S LINES HELJ Paris, Dee. 5. The Salonika correspondent of Le ■Petit Parisian says the Bulgarian lines :

are strongly and soliilly organised.-A* though the enemy has fallen back, 'hf i« in no way destroyed, and onlji slightly demoralised. Germano-Bulgariaa prisoners declare that Mftekensen, ha*' ordered the present positions to be Md at all costs. The Allies' pressure con* tinues incessantlj'j; it |is sometime* lively, and sometimes weak. There have been n6 attacks worthy of the na&M since the capture oi Monastic- ™ GERMAN ESTIMATE OF ROUMA/ NIAN LOSSES. London, Pec. ft ■ A Berlin dispatch claim;, that the Roumanians lost 23,000 men between November m and December 3. The Germans occupy ■45,(100 squaro .kilometres of territory, while the Alt valley contains numerous herds and great stores of grain, which will be converted to tho use of the German people soon as possible, 4 THE THREATENED CITY. ABOUT BUCHAREST Bucharest, which is more or less dfr rcctly threatened by the cnemy'B oper-ate-is, and from which, it id said, the< State administration has already been moved, is a large, spreading eity built in a hollow chiefly on the left bank of the Dambovita. There is a range <pf iow hills to tbc south, but the holloiV i* old river swamp, still imperfectly drained. It used to be a dreadfully' unhealthy eity, crowded, with narrow . streets and mean houses, undrained, subject to epidemics which carried off large numbers of the inhabitants, built fcr the most part of wood becauße it was in a bad earthquake area, and consequently liable to serious flreß. The outlay of the eity has been revolutionised ih the last fifty years, however and it is now well drained and has an ample supply of good water. Its boulevards and avenues, and the gaiety ol its life brought it the title of the Pari« of the East. At the beginning of the' great wttl before the value flf fixed fortification! under modern artillery fire had been fairly assessed, one would have discussed the defences of the eity in detail, because Bucharest is ranked rs a fortress, or rather an entrenched camp of the first class Brialmont, the great. Belgian engineer, planned the fortifications in ISB3, and completed about ten years latei. The forts are roughly four' miles from the city, and the perimeter is about forty-eight miles, so that the panning of the defences would n'e refioarily employ a very considerable army. ' There are thirty-six armoupd forts and batteries, all built on the Brittluiont plan, and, according to the ideas ruling ar the time of construction adequately anmmred and armed. It was cmisidcrwi, however, that 30,000 men would he sufficient for a nucleus !tarri>xn, a foiee that would obviously be inadequate in those times, when batteries are used only as points d'nppni fcr infantry entrenchments. The defence of Verdun shows the strain that may be involved in the fighting for even'a dismantled fortress, and although it would be impossible for the enemy to bring again?t Bucharest njiy thing' like the' mass of men and guns that the Germans concenlrated against Verdun, the burden of defense would o'ovir.usly be a severe one for the Ruuii'liians. The defences of Bucharest are said to he technically of particular interest, bi'i-'Uise th«y eiv.lwdy Brialmont's theories Certainly he superintended their elaboration, and for a time he lost his ji-silion under the Belgian Government because he went to Rumania to do the work without having anthorfi.y from his Government. He was inspe:-lor-generil of Belgian fortifications it, the "time, and took the Rumanian conmisshui, apparently because his scheme* for the defence "of Belgian met With. so much opposition from the authorities Ke mapped out a general schema of defence for Rumania, » scheme that, by the wav, was never earned out in its entiretv, but devoted its attention pyineip-allv" to the capital. Austria, proteted'against the loan of so distinguished an engineer to Rumania, pro. fessing to believe that the fortifications of Bucharest was directed chiefly against herself, though probably both Russm and Bulgaria were, rather in' mind'* of the Rumanians themselves. At any rate, the Belgian .Government decided to release him from its service. How, ever, the Belgians were obviously imv pressed by the fact that both Rumania and' Gteece had **t high stores liv Brialmont's qualifications, and they soon loinstatod him at Antwerp. and Nauuir fortifications were construe-, led, of course, on his plans.