New-York tribune., 1918-05-12
The Second Peace of Bucharest


Five years ago Rumania, Serbia and
Greece, victors in the Second Balkan
War, made peace at Bucharest. By the
terms of this treaty conquered Bulgaria
surrendered her claims to all of Mace
donia, to Salonica and to that portion of
the Dobrudja which had remained to her
after her war of liberation. Now new
Treaty of Bucharest is signed, and by it
Rumania surrenders far more than did
Bulgaria. She surrenders her indie
pendence, political as we'll as economic
and becomes a vassal of the Central
Powers. A generation ago Rumania
trusted Russia and lost her Bessarabian
seacoast; a second betrayal by the Rus
sian has cost her all but mere existence.
The important thing to recognize about
the Second Treaty of Bucharest is that
it is one more step in the completion Of
the scheme of Mitteleuropa. Finland,
Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, Lithu-
ania, Poland, the Ukraine have al
ready passed under the control of the
Central Powers. Sebastopol and Riga are
in German hands. The Baltic and the
Black seas are dominated by the Kaiser
And now, by the treaty with Rumania,
the control of the Danube is assured.
Precisely as Napoleon built his edifce
of the Confederation of the Rhine-an
edifice in which score Of vassal kings
and princes consented to retain power by
paying tribute to the French Emperor
another system of states is being erected
about the German Kaiser. Controlling
the Russian frontier races, Germany
dominates a vast agricultural region
Controlling the Balkans, she holds the
way to the Near East. Dominating Ru-
mania and the Ukraine, she is mistress
of the north side of the Black Sea, while
her Turkish ally lays hands upon the
roads that lead from the south side of
the Black Sea to the frontiers of India.
Rumania herself now loses her mill
tary independence, loses the frontier
gates to her own territories, surrenders
to Bulgaria the territories she took five
years ago, consents to surrender the
remainder of her Black Sea littoral, her
window on the sea-; agrees to sur
render the islands in the Delta of the
Danube; agrees her oil wells shall be
German possessions; and, in point of fact,
is herself bound hand and foot to Ger
many. Rumanian independence is at an
end. although there may remain upon the
map a territory decorated with the name
of Ferdinand's state.
1t is essential to recall at all times
what the German is doing. Mitteleuropa
has been for the moment forgotten by the
Allies in the storm and fury of the bat
tie in the West. In the desperate strug
giles in Picardy and Flanders we have
found substitute for the examination
OF the terms of the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk and the later agreement at
Bucharest, which will endure to the peril
Of the world until Germany is beaten in
the West.
After nearly four years of war Ger
many has conquered Belgium, Serbia.
Montenegro and all of Western Russia
on the battlefield. She has gained con-
troll Of Austria Hungary, Bulgaria and
Turkey. She now dominates an empire
greater than that of Napoleon, and, If
she be permitted to organize it, an empirc
likely to rival the Roman achievement in
world power
The Allied world can feel onlv two
thlngs-sympathy for Rumania in her
present agony, determination to rescue
kumania in the future What GERMANY
mas done In Rumania and in Serbia and
IN Belgium she is seeking to do in France
and in Italy. The Kaiser may we'll con-
gratulate himself on what he has done in
the East. Could be preserve that edif,ce.
europe would at no distant date be
German province.
Inc tate OF one more little nation
should serve to remind US again of tho.
issues of that great conflict now proceed
ing In France and Belgium ana once
more indicate eloquently and finally tho
reasons why it is impossible to discuss
peace now. The fall of Rumania is one
more potent reason why we must fight
forward to victory.
but as there is a patent parallel now
with the Napoleonic policy in creating
the Confederation of the Rhine, SO there
is an unmistakable hope for the future
in the history of the collapse of that
earlier edifice. After the Battle OF
Leipsic Germany rose, Europe rose
against Napoleon. One defeat doomed all
that he had created in defiance of the
history and the aspirations of the Ger
man, Spanish and Austrian peoples.
Napoleon sowed no such crop of hate