RUMANIA'S POSITION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 50, 27 February 1915, Page 6

RUMANIA'S POSITION.

■ CONSOLIDATION" OF HER : NATIONAL DESTINY. The fact that the Rumanian Governlent had allowed it to become an open ecret that in due course Rumania rould be found fighting on the side of he Allies, fornig the subject of an iirtile in the".Near East" of January 8. Not one of the many combatants in his world-wide wur (says the paper) ; .ill have entered upon the struggle with ational sentiment stirred in precisely he same way as that of the Ku- , lanians. For France the -wrong o{ ■ ilsaeo-Lorraine belongs to our own ; enerntion: the Helgiaus and .Servians , «ht in order that their countries should ; ot pans permanently into the hands of ( he invader. 'If the spirit of history ie < ot (lead between the Danube and the , arpathians. Rumania will draw the word in the consciousness that she is ; liking one more step, possibly the final, :i the consolidation of her national deeiny. That destiny she lias been workng out for some sixteen centuries; all . iicousciouslv at first, no doubt, for dur- , ng more than half that period the Rulanian race, as it 'has been well e\ressed, pursued, like some underground ■ iver. a hidden course, only to emerge ritll midiminished vigour at the end. Kuuininn national sentiment awakened in lie thirteenth century. and from thnt ime has t>e{"its face towards the goal if a united Rumanian nice. For a few uief months in the year 1000, when the oiiquests of Michael fhe Brave made lim riiler over Wallachia, Transylvania, lid Moldavia, the ideal seemed to have (ecu realised, but Michael's triumph was hort-lived. The story of the Rumniiims shows strange vicissitudes since the lunpariaus annexed Transylvania in the leveiith century. Before Michael of ValUu-hia attained his greatness he had irst to rout the Turks: but, finding nore r-cojic fur his ambition,, in the lortli. he made peace with the Sultan hrough the med'tvtion of the English , \mhassador at Constantinople. The . .'urk remained the chief enemy, and tovards the end of t)hc seventeenth ceniirv the first overtures for help were naile to Russia by the two principaliies of Wallachia and Moldavia. From 711 to ISI-2 Kussia'ri quarrel with Tnr;ey "we* prosecuted more often than ; lot at the expense of the Rumanians. I .1 though alleviations for the latter were ilso sought. The Rumanians, however, lad to pay dearly in many wnys or the somewhat oppressive protection j riven them from Turkish oppression. J Che independence that they wanted was j lot obtained for them, while they lo*t j ?ukowina to the Austrian* in 1777. and Bessarabia to the Russians by the I Creaty of Bucharest in ISI'2. ; To-day the naLionaJ sentiment of the j Rumanians goes out to the people of j .heir own race in Transylvania. Not i >nly are they united with them by tics )t "blood, but, they know that the blow I :bev are preparing to strike will .be an | ict" of deliverance from a ho.-stile yoke. Clin lot ot the Rumanians in Hungary ■in* been far from satisfactory. In offerng them concessions sinep the outbreak if the war the Magyar Government has tacitly admitted the fact but not even the chastening of an unsuccessful, war is likely to make the "Magyar an ideal ruler of an alien nationality. It is equally true, however, that while fightin S for ili.- liberation of Transylvania, the Rumanians will not be oblivious of tihe fact that their national aspirations will remain unrealised so long as I?e»<s- j arabia. with nearly a. million and a-halt Rumanian inhabitants, iornis part of Russia. They will do well not to let this question exercise them overmuch at this junction. When the time conies for the settlement, after the war. the world will hope to see. the principle of na- | tionaJitits rigorously adopted in the de- i limitation of international frontiers. I Bessarabia, which was part of the old j Moldavian principality, was claimed by ! Russia at a time when its possession | meant more to her in her scheme of' world politics than it dope now. or will i do after the war. The iniirstice involved ; in its retention was recognised in ISfifi, when, after the Crimean IWar. the ! southern part wa s restored to Rumania. ' Riwfiia, however, obtained this territory i ELirain when, by tlve Treaty of Berlin, she ' secuTed for Turkey the T>obruja district. in order that it might be exchanged for the part of TkwsaraMa -which she had j previously lost. Fortunately, between Rumania and Russia there exists no bitterness of feeling engendered by enn- ] quinary conflicts for the district in question. Both the reJations rietwcen the two countries and the Tsar's temperament justify the expectation that Tlussia will do the right thing at trie right moment. Rumania can afTord to posaws her soul in confidence, knowing tnat time may bring her yet. a further claim in the forp'ng of a persona] link between the Russian and Rumanian reigning houses.