THE Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1909. ROUMANIA AND THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3204, 2 June 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1909. ROUMANIA AND THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

Roumania, which ha 3 been practically a partner in the Triple Alliance since 1896, is now, it appears, to be formerly admitted to a full partnership by an extension of the military convention ratified 13 years ago, in which it was arranged that in return for armed assistance to Austria in certain eventualities the territorial integrity of Roumania and the maintenance of the status quo on the Lower Danube should be guaranteed by the Dual Monarchy. The exact nature of the increased responsibilities that will devolve upon the country if the military convention should be amplified into a partnership in the alliance cannot be stated, since the terms of the Triple Alliance itself are only known in a 'general way to the public. But the amplification must at the same time be regarded as significant and hardly reassuring to those vvho hope for the long continued maintenance of peace. Roumania, on a war footing, has an army of 650,000 men. One of the most important facts concerning the triple Alliance is that it was renewed on June 28, 1902, by the three partners—Germany, Austria-

Hungary, and Italy—for a further term of 10 years. Consequently the alliance, if not again renewed, will expire in June, 1912. Leading statesmen in Italy are known to be opposed to a renewal of the treaty on the part of Italy except with explicit reservations. Italy, in fact, will have her hands free precisely at the time when the German naval programme is expected to be so far advanced that Germany may have as many Dreadnoughts as Great Britain, and consequently may be inclined to challenge Great Britain sea supremacy. It is impossible for the German Government, or any other Government, to forecast at present the policy which Italy will adopt in 1912. But if Italy should disappoint German hopes in the year which, according to even the British Prime Minister and tha First Lord of the Admiralty, may see Germany in a position to challenge Great Britain at sea, still the new partner of the Triple Alliance will be some set-oif against the loss. In that aspect the tinclusion of Roumania in the Triple Alliance is a small insurance against the contingency of Italy's defection. It is true that the loss of the Italian fleet would be a heavy loss to the combined Powers in the Mediterranean, but the assistance of the Roumanian ar.xy would be a decided advantage should it become necessary —as it probably would—to hold back the Russian army, which will certainly be reorganised before 1912, from overrunning the Balkan Peninsula.