New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-29


ations along the same lines. and we may
expect that Rumania will at once take over
the Bukovna front and incorporate Buko'
vina in her domnions.
A good deal of eXaggeratlon is heard
now about the numbers of Rumanian
armies. but it is certap that Rumanla can
put at least 100000 first line troops in at
once. and that behind these she will have
reserves of equal number. She has been
getting ready for this moment for two
wears. and she has levied toll on all the
ammunition sent through her frontiers,
both by Russia to Serbia year ago ana
bv Austria and Germany to Turkey and
BULGARIA. I'm her brief campaign IN Bull
garia in 1913 her army showed training
and her officers skill, and no one can forget
that it was a Rumanian army that saved
the Russians at Plevna.
1t is entirely possible that we may now
see a quick collapse of Central Power in
fuence in the Balkans, the speedy restora-
ton of Serbia and the conquest or elimlna-
ton of Bulgaria. On the other hand, there
NAV be no swift advance from Salonica
and no immediate successful invasion OF
Bulgaria by Rumanian and Russian troops.
But in any event a new force has been
added to the many now being exerted
evenly and steadily against all the fronts
Of the Central Powers, on each of which
they are outnumbered.
To expect the collapse of Austria is I'M
reasonable, because the entrance OF Ku-
mania gives Hungary new cause for
fighting. Her own future is locked up in
the issue now If the war be lost she will
lose some of her fairest provinces and
more than 100000 people in Temesvar
and Transatlantic. Her whole future de-
ponds upon repulsing Runranian attacks,
and only by remaining faithful to her Ger
man alliance can she have the slightest
hope of enduring.
1t is different with Bulgaria; she can
change sides if she chooses and all will be
forgiven. because. when she quits Mace
donia. there is nothing that she possesses
that her present foes covet. She may even
receive her former conquests in Thrace;
but one imagines that money rather than
provinces will have the say in Sofia now,
as they did year ago.
In the case of Turkey the situation re-
mains the same. Russia means to have
Constantinople, and will never abandon this
purpose merely to purchase Turkish retire
ment from the war; but once the life line
from Constantinople to Berlin is cut, then
it will hardly be a difficult problem to dis
pose of Turkey, and we may soon see new
armies at the Chatalja lines, where the
last invasion was halted in 1912. Turkey.
like Hungary, cannot look for mercy at the
hands of her conquerors, if she be con
1uered, for their purposes are unmistaka-
bic.
One sees clearly now the length and
breadth of Allied unwisdom last year. The
failure to support Serbia, the troops sent
TO Gallipoli that might have been sent to
Belgrade, produced all the ruin that has
But now, when the armies are
at Salonica. the whole situation changes.
Rumania was ready year ago; Greece
was undecided but leaning toward the
Allies; Bulgaria was frankly in the mar
ket. 1t was at this point that Sir Edward
Grey undertook to restore the Balkan ALI
ance which he had destroyed at the Con-
ference of London in 1928 by accepting
the Albanian policy Of the Central Powers.
The result was the immolation of Serbia.
One remembers that in the Napoleonic
time, when the Emperor was still winning
victories in Germany and Spain. the
French people began to murmur that vic
tories were no permanent substitute for
peace and glory was not final counter
poise for carnage. One recalls that as one
new enemy after another appeared in the
field against the Emperor, France at last
grew weary and the empire collapsed, not
so much because of defeat as through the
failure Of the people to rally to Napoleon
as they had rallied to the Revolution
twenty years before.
All parallels are dangerous, and yet it IS
difficult not to believe that the Rumanian
decision will not have real effect in Ger
many. After two years of war and moth
ing but victory, when the enemy, so the
German press asserts and the statesmen
declaim, is all but exhausted and the war
is only prolonged by the success of Allied
statesmen in deceiving the people, Italy
declares war on Germany and Rumania
enlists. Surely there is something here
that must reach even to the seat of Ger
man confidence.
And so the Rumanian decision may
easily mark one of those great crises in
military and political history, the moment
when a gigantic structure and colossal
imperial edifice began to crumble. At all
events the present hour is the most propi-
tious Allied fortune has known since the
Battle of the Marine.