RUMANIA READY FOR ACTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3120, 26 June 1917, Page 5

RUMANIA READY FOR ACTION

ARMY IN BETTER TRIM THAN EVER. London, .Tune 24. Tha "Daily Mail" has received information that the Rumanian Army is a better fighting organisation than .at tho period of intervention. It i« equally large, and its moral is umshattered, while in equipment it is immeasurably superior. Tho King remains tho idol of tlio troops. Public opinion at Jassv is optimistic. Although tho Germans expect much benefit from tho crops in the occupied districts, they are faced with great difficulties of transport. On the other hand, tho Germans have made substantia! progress with the restoration of tlio oil 'wells which the British destroyed. —Aus.-N./,. Cable As.su. "The defeat of Rumania was foreseen and organised by If. Stunner (the pro-German Russian Premier), who wished to finish tho war," declared General lliescu, formerly Chief of the Rumanian General Staff, in a recent interview republished in the "New Europe" from the Paris "Matin." According to the General, Rumania had been equipping and reorganising her Army, which was to be increased from 180,000 to 820,000 men (including 560,000. combatants), tint owing to difficulties of transport and communication 6he was still not ready to enter tho war in July, 1916. Tho Stunner Ministry insisted, however, on her entering. To the demand by Rumania that Russia should provide 200,000 soldiers for the Dobrudja to secure Rumania from an attack by Bulgaria, M. Stunner replied that 20,000 men would be i.mple to make a political demonstration, and declared that tho Bulgarians would never be willing to light against Russia. Twice Russia was requested by the Rumanian General Staff to take Rustchuk, which would have protected Bucharest, but this action was declined in order not to offend Bulgaria. Besides, the Rumanian armies i u Transylvania' wore to link up with a Russian advance from Dorna Vatra in tho Bukowina, but those troops never moved and are still there. M. Stunner never intended that they 6houtd move, in spite of the assurances he gavo to Rumania and to Trance, says General lliescu,. After fighting 40 days in the passes the Rumanian armies had to full back before superior forces It. Stunner wished, tho General adds, to allow Rumania to be invaded as far as tho Sereth, to allow tho military triumph of tho Central Powers, and then to conclude a separate peace in consequence of a defeat which he would represent as a R.umanian and not a ' Russian defeat. Rumania was beaten because her armies were less well' aimed than those of the enemy, "but the initial cause of our defeat was tho disloyal plan of the Germaniphile Government of Petrograd, who played with tlio fate of Rumania to facilitate a premeditated act of trejuihery. There is one of tho imponderabilia which no Rumanian, French, or English diplomat would have been able to foresee, but this waa our ruin."