The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 1919. TROUBLESOME ALLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 189, 11 August 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 1919. TROUBLESOME ALLIES.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the failure in the distance, And the good that we ;aii do.

The Supreme Council of the Allies ia finding that it is one thing to issue orders for the settlement of Central European problems and another thing to get these orders obeyed. They have one or two troublesome children in their large and mixed brood, offspring who think cither that they have grown up and can fend for themselves, or that they are far enough from the paternal hand to take liberties. Rumania is the latest to make trouble. The Rumanians have occupied Budapest; they are reported , to be pillaging, and they have presented 1 a harsh ultimatum to the new Hungarian Government. Rumania has suffered so much in this war that it is not pleasant to criticise her present actions. The nation was overwhelmed quickly, stripped of every valuable with Teutonic thoroughness, and subjected to a humiliating peace, so that when the tables were turned after the collapse of the enemy there' was naturally a strong temptation to exact severe terms from the hated Hungarian foe and oppressor of the Rumanians of Transylvania. But all thut Rumania has sull'cred in the Allied cause doed not alter the fact that she is behaving badly now. Her armies have no right to occupy Budapest and dictate terms to Hungary. That is the business of the Allies. It is true that the Rumanians helped the Allies in tho war, and that the pressure of the Rumanian iirtny was a factor in the downfall of the Bolshevik Government in Hungary, but Rumania's debt to the Allies is far greater. She exists as a free nation to-day by reason of the victory of the Great Powers in the Alliance, and she is dependent on them for securing the fruits of victory to which she is justly entitled. The task of making peace with Hungary must be left to tho Supreme Council. Tha body has been prompt to disavow the Rumanian ultimatum, and it is to lie hoped that if tho Rumanian generals, flushed with success, do not immediately recognise its authority, steps will be taken quickly to punish them. Rumania will get Bessarabia, as well as part of Transylvania, and if in the face of this realisation of her aspirations sue defies the Allies or acts so as to make further trouble in Central Europe she will forfeit the sympathy of her friends. The Boles are another people who have been causing not only the Supreme Council, but their friends all over the world, a good deal of anxiety. Tho! British and American Press comment on the indisposition of the Poles to obey the j Bowers that won their freedom for them,] and also on the grave charges of out-; rages made against the Polish army and people on pood authority. In May M. I'aderewski, the Premier of Poland, and the most conspicuous figure in her renais- I sauce, resigned because his Government! at Warsaw was not in sympathy with his | pledge to the Allied Council that Poland should keep the pcaro in Galicia until, the frontier was settled. The representatives of the "Times" at the Peace Conference comment, on this situation incisively. Poland, he says, is trying to run | before she can walk. Internal problems call for solution, and the leading politicians nro thinking about extension of frontiers. "Only two months ago the Poles worn talking of a mighty Bolshevist offensive which was to be launched against them this month with the help of the Ukrainians. Then, when they were short of ammunition nnd while General Haller _ divisions were still in Prance, if, was they who pointed to the unwillingness of the Ukrainians to stop lighting as the only bar to an armistice in Eastern Galicia. Now that General Haller and his men are in Poland, nnd shells and cartridges are more plentiful than they were, they throw the thought of an armistice to the winds and cry 'Eastward Ho!' Now, the Ukrainians may be Bolshevists, and Poland may have excellent claims to parts of Eastern Galicia, but it there if one thing that the Conference has made up its mind about it is that there has been enough war in Europe, nnd that territorial disputes cannot be set fled by force of arms." It must be said for the Poles thyt they were tired of waiting for tTTe decisions of {Tie Paris Conference about their frontiers, and they may have had some justification for believing that if they wanted protection they must provide it themselves. But the "Times" correspondent's warning to them was timely—that they were dependent on the Great Towers for more things than their eastern borders, and that if they wished to have that assistance they must try to understand better the wishes of their powerful friends. Wo couple the Boles with the Rumanians to ilustrate one kind of difficulty with which the Allies are faced in their task of bringing peace to Central Europe .is quickly as possible. In one ease there is an army which, after suffering crushing defeat, has drunk deep of the wine of victory in the enemy's country. In the other the Allies have to deal with a proud, passionate, and temperamental people who, kept in subjection for over a century, suddenly find themselves free. Restraint and co-operation are required of a people among whose virtues these qualities have not been conspicuous. There are anxious dnys ahead for the Allies in these .ouj'ts of tho world. It

will lie a calamity if tbe high-handed action of the Rumanians should encourage a Bolshevik reaction in Hungary just when there seems to be a good prospect of the country settling down under a stable government. But trouble may be sown farther afield. A defiance of the Supremo Council is likely to encourage resistance to the Allies in enemy countries; already it is reported that Turkish hopes are reviving. Iv the interests of present and future peace the Allies must assert themselves. If the Allies cannot keep order in Central Europe with their extensive powers, how will tlie League of Nations, with less authority, be able to do so?