IF ROUMANIA FALLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1916, Page 5

IF ROUMANIA FALLS.

WHAT GERMANY WOULD GAIN.- , Professor Basilesco, a member of iM, Roumanian Parliament, writing to The* Times, foreshadowed what would hap-* pen if Roumania fell into German hands.; He wrote about the middle of Octftbet ln&t: "By the conquest of Roumanian Germany would secure immense storeai o» com, petroleum, benzine, mineral! oils, salt, and timber; a good railway 6j>tem, and the Danube as means oij transport, besides all the crops whielt the fertile soil of Roumania can pro ducc. The spectre of famine would bt {or ever banished from the German Kmpire. Could they once get Roumania! into their grasp, the Germans would never relax their, hold. ?."hey know fal l»etter than the Roumanians themselves how inexhaustible are her resources, an<» how sober and hardworking aw her peo_ pie. No sacrifice will seem too heavx for them if by it they can secure such ( prize i "The duty and interest of the Allie are alike clear," adds Prof. Basilesco; "If. by timely action, they thwart th( German scheme and ensure the triumpl of Roumania, they will at the «ame tinu smooth their own path to complete vie, tcry and notably shorten the war. Their efforts should tend without delay, no, merely to save Roumania from the AuaC tro-fierman grasp, but to save then*; selves, to spare millions of human Hvk and hundreds of millions of money, t/ shoiten the war, and to establish Em ope of the future on solid founda,, tions." t , The King of Roumania in moving words has declared that "the Rouman. ians will not falter in their allegitncC t» the cause, nor can the cnem) wean them from their faith in England th» ,lust, in France their Latin brother, and in Russia their immediate neighbor.*,