FIGHTING AMID THE TRANSYLVANIAN ALPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 207, 30 August 1916, Page 5

FIGHTING AMID THE TRANSYLVANIAN ALPS.

TEUTONIC RIGHT FLANK IN THE AIR. LARGE RUSSIAN FORCE TO ASSIST NEW ALLY. LONDON, August 29. A Vienna communique states:—"Rumania made a treacherous surprise attack. The first shots were exchanged with our frontier posts in the Hungarian south-eastern and eastern passes. "The advanced guards in the Rothen Thurm Pass, in the Transylvanian Alps, and in the passes south-west and south of Brasso (Kronstadt) entered into conflict early on Monday. "The first Rumanian prisoners have been taken." A German communique claims that Rumanian prisoners have been taken on the Transylvanian frontier. / An Austrian report of the fighting shows that Hungarian Transylvania is Rumania's immediate objective. Rumania is here confronted with the Carpathians barrier, which is a hundred miles in extent. Critics say the conquest may not be rapid, but the Rumanian operations will immediately improve the strategic situation, as the Russian left in Bukowina is now linked with the Rumanian right, while the Teutonic right flank is now completely "in the air." Hitherto the Austro-German flank has rested on the Rumanian frontier near the south-west corner of Bukowina. It must now be prolonged for 400 miles along the Carpathians to the Danube at Orsova. It has been reported that a large Russian force is concentrating on the Danube close to the Rumanian frontier. The Iron Gate, on the Danube on Rumania's southern boundary, may again be the scene of a struggle, as in the time of the Romans. Apart from the prospect of a wholesale invasion of Hungary, the Russians are now able to march into Bulgaria through Rumania, utilising Odessa a3 a base. In this connection the interesting statement comes from Petrograd that Russia has armed and trained very considerable forces of former AustroHungarian subjects for use in the Balkans, officered partly by their own and partly by Serbian officers. The men composing these forces have taken the path of allegiance to the Czar.