ROUMANIAN ERROR.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1917, Page 7

ROUMANIAN ERROR.

FRENCH ADMIRAL'S STORY. Admiral Fournier, formerly Chief of the French Navy, who recently returned from a visit to Roumania and Russia, wrote an interesting article in the Matin on his views of the situation. The Admiral points out that while in French the intervention of Roumania was regarded as of great importance, there was at the time a disposition in Russia to welcome it with some reserve from the purely military point of view. So long as Roumania remained neutral, General Brusiloff was able to carry on his offensive with the left flank of the Russian line covered by Wallachia and the Dobrudja.

The Russians cvpeeted that the Roumanians, when they intervened, would maintain a firm defensive in Transylvania, and employ their main forces for a massed attack upon the Bulgarians, who were necessarily handicapped by the fact that the Allies at Salonika 'were holding up an important part of their armies.

This plan (the Admiral says) was indeed the one formulated by General Avereseti, hut unfortunately other counsels prevailed, find it was discarded in favor of an offensive in Transylvania. Roumania, turning her back on her principal enemy, weakened her position by driving back the Hungarians and enlarging her fronts, until met by the strong German reinforcements, when she had to regain her own frontiers, and in her retreat suffered the loss of much valuable artillery. The Russians thereupon found it necessary to interrupt General Brusiloff'a offensive in order to reinforce the Roumanians, but they were able to cover their flank in Wallachia and their rear in the Dobrtidja rapidly enough to hold up the invaders.