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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16207, 9 May 1918, Page 6

Major-General Maurice, the "high military authority" whose comments on tho operations at the front we have been reading periodically for months past, and until recently the Director of Military Operations, has broken fresh ground in a letter to the London "Daily Chronicle," in which he directly charges Mr Lloyd George and Mr Bonar Law with making false statements in the House of Commons. On one point, the number of divisions of white troops in Mespotamia, Egypt, and Palestine, which Mr Lloyd George stated to bo four in all, he has already been flatly contradicted by Colonel j Repington, but owing to the latter's attitude as a confirmed "Westerner," and a profound disbeliever in the value of our operations in the Middle East, his assertion that tho Prime Minister's statement was incorrect, was not given the importance which perhaps it deserved. At all events the Government took no notice of it.

General Maurice's charges, coming from a member of the Imperial General Staff, are obviously on a different footing. No Government could afford to ignore the assertion by a highlyplaced officer that the Premier ahd the Leader of the House of Commons were deliberately misleading the nation on matters of great military importance. Nor, it may be added, would such an officer mako such charges unless be were convinced of their correctness, for if the Judges who have been appointed by the Government to conduct the enquiry into the allegations—an enquiry which General Maurico invited —find that ho is misinformed, his career will be at an end; if indeed the Army Council's disciplinary proceedings do not have that effect. It is to ,be feared that the incident is a development of tho friction recently caused by Sir William Robertson's retirement. If that is the case, the matter is particularly deplorable, for at a time like the present it is im-

perative that 110 dissensions should hamper the effectiveness of Great Britain's military leaders. The action of Roumania in signing a peace treaty with the Central Powers is the inevitable result of the Russian collapse. The little kingdom is isolated from all her allies, and to save herself from obliteration she was forced, to agree to the harsh terms imposed upon her by her enemies. These, as has been mentioned before, include the cession of the Dobrudja, the long strip of territory bordering the Black Sea, the "readjustment"—convenient word! —of the frontier between Roumania and iransylvania, now part of TTnngary, but populated very largely by Roumanians, the granting of economic concessions, and the handing over to Germany of the rich oilfields. She had previously been compelled by a preliminary peacc treaty signed early in March to facilitate the transport to Odessa, through her territories, of troops of the Centra! Powers. A report was published some little time ago that Germany also intended to demand an indemnity from Roumania of four hundred millions stei'ling, but this has not been confirmed

The stato of Roumania since Russia betrayed her, has been pitiable in the extreme. She knew, in the words of a member of her Parliament who lately visited England, that she was trapped, •and that there was no possibility of help reaching her. i; Eut," ho added, "believing in the inherent justice of things wc must hope that the day will come which will bring happier times to tho Roumanian people." It requires strong faith to do that in view of what has been happening to the little nation. More than. 14,000 Roumanian men and women in Transylvania are reported to have been condemned to doath by the Hungarians, because of their patriotic conduct in aiding tho Roumanian army when it entered Transylvania, and nearly one million of the seven millions of peoplo of Roumania have already died. Two-thirds of the country has been occupied by an enemy whoso conduct towards her victims is too well known, and for many months the people have been very-closo to starvation.