The Washington herald., 1916-12-07
Rumanians I'm Flight.

humAhlAuM
And now the most drsmatio and
spectacular race Of the whole war ID
on. The enemy on ell sides, its capital
in the invaders hands, It's King and
government refugees on the border pre-
pared tor1ee to foreign soil. its comtry's
rich resources feeding its pursuers, the
Rumanian army is wildly dashing toward
the last loop hole. And there, on the
opposite bank Of the Danube, lurlCa
Mackensen's 'Dobrudja army ready "a
cross the river the moment its prospec-
tive prey has approached close enough
II he deems It vital to bag the
Rumanians himself. He may leave this
however, to the northern army OF Gen
Won Falkenhayn. which Is now racing
due east from Ploesci. In an almost
parallel line with the fleeing Rumanians,
70 reach the intersection on the Ploesci-
Braila Railway which alone held out
hope for an eleyenth-hour rescue Of
King Ferdinand's army which thence
could reach safety on Russian soil
It is an unfair race according 10
the sportsman's conception The RurnAni-
ans have to cover some 40 miles. the
Teutons only eighty-four.
Such Is the Rumanian situation after
the automatic fall OF Bucharest-only as
regards the plight Of the Rumanian
army.
Presents Menace 20 Russia.
As for the possibilities presented to the
team of the two greatest Teuton strate-
gists, the picture presented by q glance
at the map is one OF gigantic menace to
Russia For II the great Teuton sweep
continues with the same clocklike pre-
cision that has marked II thus far, there
can be but one result: The establish
ment OF q Teuton front from Bucharest
to Lemberg-a distance OF some 80 miles
and ultimately from Brsdla 10 the Cali
clan capital
This mems that the entire Ruszian
southern front automAttcAIly wnl Be
pushed far tothe east from whess q now
stands. The Trsnsyivznian Alpine ridgeS
the Carpathian Mountains, the Bukowtns
and all OF Southeastern Gahcia now IN
Muscovite hands must be cleared. WINS
constantly the Teuton steam roller moves
mena cingly closer to the Russo-Rumsn-
ian frontier, foreshadowing q huge drive
against Bessarabia, with the Black Sea
port Of Odessa as the chief objective
The seemingly inevitable course Of this
greatest strateg1cal sweep Of this and
all other wars may be perceived even
now on the map by following the railway
leading northward from Bucharest n
runs to Ploesci, then northeastward 70
Buzeu. then north to where II meets tha
Sereth, whereupon II follows that rivers
course to Cernowitz. the Bukowina cap
ital, thence along the bend Of the Pruth
to Kolomes, now In Russian hands, TO
Lemburg.
Kings Palace Captured.
Sinaia. seat Of King Ferdinand's paIa-
dal summer residence, was captured
again automatically-by the Teuton Ninth
army. In Southwestern wallachia, Ber-
lin announced today, the Rur1anian forces
are 'retreating IN utter confusion"
The fighting Of December 8 alone netted
an additional 6o36 prisoners to the in
vsders. Large Rumanian shipments of
wheat consigned to Great Britain were
seized by Falkenhsyn's forces on the rail-
road northwest from Bucharest
One OF the outstanding features Of the
last two weeks developments in Rurnania
has been the frRnkness with which the
Petrograd war office told OF the accumu-
lattng Rumanian disasters. Again today
the Cars high command-which, incl
dentally, appears to have taken complete
charge of the Balkan kingdoms forces.
no statement having come from the Ru-
manian war office since the government
fled to Jassy-made important admis-
sions