THE GREEK BRAKESMAN

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 90, 13 October 1916, Page 6

THE GREEK BRAKESMAN

The suggestion that the Germans ares substituting Bucharest for Verdun as their 1916 objective has not yet been avowed in Germany—possibly because the German popular idea concerning Verdun dies hard—but it is supported by actions if not by words. Rumania, who a.t the outset advanced northward into Transylvania, now officially announces a retirement in the face of an enemy who is "attacking along our whole front." On the other hand, the enemy's forward move in the south (the Dobrudja) has also been reversed, and Yon Mackensen, instead of holding with his Bulgars and Turks the comparatively narrow line he had attained between tibe Danube and the sea, is reported to have been pushed back upon an ever-widening front. The secondary stage of the Rumanian warfare therefore witnesses, at the moment, a reversal of earlier tendencies on both fronts, and the situation as a whole is fluid and uncertain. A considerable degree of apprehensiveness is indicated in to-day's message setting forth the strategic and industrial losses that the Entente would suffer if an enemy offensive converted Rumania from a. protective buffer into a battering-ram pointed at South Russia. Similar apprehensiveness is shown by Sir Edward Carson in his declaration that it would be a disaster "if Germany were permitted to crush Rumania." In the Servian precedent, the immediate liability to render aid. rested on Britain, France, and Italy, since they, and not Russia, were able to establish direct connection with. Servia.; but they started "too 3ate." It is to be hoped that the same verdict 'will not have to be recorded against Russia, on whom the responsibility for. direct aid to Rumania now devolves. All that the other -members o^f the Entente can do is to assist the Roumanians by the Salonika, offensive or—more remotely but peihaps equally effectively—by the push on the Somme and on the Carso, where the Italians are winning new successes. Assistance from Salonika,' is still handicapped by the Entente's GTeek embarrassments, and the same state- of things obtained during the Servian crisis last year. Then, as now, King Constantine was the brake upon, the wheels.

And that leads up to the Greek situa. tion of the moment. It has all along been evident that the Entente commander at Salonika was lamed if not crippled by the uncertain Greek forces on his line of communications, around his base, and in his rear, and recent cablegrams show this aspect in an even stronger light. In their disarmament demands addressed to the stop-gap Greek Government, the Entente Powers now speak openly oE the Greek fleet as a menace to the Entente squadron, and bluntly declare that the concentration of Greek troops in the interior is "a danger to the Entente army." In conformity with this openness of utterance, sweeping demands have been made, including surrender of warships, of fprts (some of which command the Entente moorings), and of an arsenal; surrender of control of tho Piraeus harbour; and transfer of tho Pirnoiis-Lorissa railway, tho miliVftiO' nutixuMU'iue of the country. To-d»,y

it is cabled that the atop-gap Government has notified to the British Legation its formal acquiescence with the demands ; and the naval surrender seems to have been in the main carried out, but the railway transfer and occupation by the Entente are another thing. Even if it is not true that the Royalist troops are preparing to defend the railway, the fact remains that to police Central Greece would absorb a lot of troops who can ill be . spared—unless that delicate job can be entrusted to the Greek revolutionaries. It is much to bo regretted that the long-drawn-out Greek crisis persists at a time when. Rumania stands decidedly in need of a sympathetic offensive from Salonika, and when the British right on the Struma, the French centre on the Vardar, and particularly the Servian left in the Mouastir district of Macedonia, had made such a promising start. Given a helpful Greece, or even a reliably neutral Greece, this combined offensive, reinforced by Italians and Russians, might have done much, but now there is a danger of winter supervening before the Btdgar is sufficiently punished to relax his grip on the Rumanian Dobrndja. Without striking a blow, King Constantine has fought hard for the Kaiser, and at the very least has won the iron cross. Still, the door at London is not closed, and Mr. Asquith, while stressing the importance of Entente co-operation in the Balkans for Rumania's benefit, yet holds out the hope that a wisely-governed Greece (he does not specify what sort of government) may still take "a worthy post at our side."