ANCIENT DACIA.

Evening Star, Issue 15906, 11 September 1915, Page 8

ANCIENT DACIA.

A PATRIOTS YISKM.

LITTLE NATIONS. GREAT ASPIRATIONS. STUDY IN SALIENTS. [By Crixicus.] For the moment the Russians have stolen a march on the Austro-Germans in Eastern Gaiicia. Evidently the economy of force, referred to yesterday, resulting from the abandonment of the Warsaw salient and the shortening of the line due to the taking up of a plane front has enabled them to secretly despatch powerful reinforcements to their extreme left flank. Petrograd now reports that the victory at Trembovla was as important as that at Tarnopol. The Russians captured 7,000 prisoners and 36 machine guns, and, what is even more important, according •to the latest advices up to the, moment of writing the enemy are in full retreat toward'the Strypa in that district. Against this success must be placed an Austrian claim that a fortress at Dubno has been captured and that the Russian front has been broken north of Olyka, a town situated on a tributary of the Horyn River, 20 miles due north'of Dubno and about the salne distance weft of Rovno. This district is the most critical sector for the time being, as it is the ambition of the enemy to link up the Galician rail-

ways with the northern lines through Bovno, thus completing their lateral communications. The Russian successes on the Sereth are fortunate, as if pressed they may compel the enemy to despatch reinforcements south from the. Rovno area. In the centre the Russians claim to be holding up large forces of the enemy south-east of Skidel, which is 20 miles east of Grodno, but the same message admits that they " continue their premeditated retreat." In the Baltic Provinces there has been stubborn fighting between Lautke and Jakobstadt, but no material change in the position is reported. MORE AGREEMENTS. The Russian victory in Eastern Gaiicia is a fortunate incident from the diplomastic as well as from the military point of view. _ Negotiation is at its "height. Diplomatists are working their hardest. They are lying with a lucidity, force, and precision which reduces the mere layman to envious despair. The latest yarn to come along is one given in an interview by the Bulgarian Premier, if the Sofia correspondent of the ' Morning Post' is to be believed. It seems that an agreement for the cession of the Dedeagatch railway has been concluded between Turkey and Bulgaria. The concession includes a strip of territory two kilometres deep along the left bank of the Maritza, Bulgaria takes possession in 10 days' time. There is something familiar in "all this. To repeat the same lie time after time in almost the same words is to fall short of the highest ideals of art, even when the lie is a good one. It inevitably results in a lack of verisimilitude. Some day, when these Balkan politicians so far forget themselves as to tell the truth, they will find that they are not believed. M. Venezelos is reported to have invited the Premiers of Serbia, Rumania, and Bulgaria to a conference to be held at _ Salonika. This would be a very good thing if it could be brought off. The personal persuasiveness and intellectual lucidity of a man like Venezelos would accomplish more in an hour towards arriving at an understanding than diplomatic Notes will accomplish in a month. Various untrustworthy reports are to hand. German politicians are said to be exercised over a surprise visit by a Bulgarian politician to Nish, where" he delivered a detailed answer to the Serbian Note. Rome reports that diplomatists are highly optimistic, and are convinced that Bulgaria, has given up the idea of throwing" in her lot with the Austro-Germans; while a detailed states ment of Rumania's intentions are also sent, which must be taken cum grano AN ANXIOUS TIME. Rumania is having an anxious time just now. The accompanying map shows the position of that country and its strategical l-elation to the extreme southern flank of the contending armies. It illustrates the supreme strategical importance of Rumania's position vat the present moment, but it also shows that with the progress of the Austro-German forces her position will be rapidly modified for the worse. The peculiar boomerang shape of Rumania converts the Hungarian province of Transylvania into a very pronounced salient. Some days ago we had the statement that the Austro-Germans were concentrating a large force at Ivronstadt (or Brasso), in the extreme tip of the salient. Whereupon it was pointed out here that the proper place for such a concentration would be Bistritz (shown in the map), wheTe they would not be liable to be cut off by a combined advance from the two arms of the Rumanian boomerang, and where they would be best placed to meet an advance upon the AustTo-German communications along the western side of the Carpathians. That gives its the very essence of Rumania's strategical position. If the reader ■will draw a line from Bucharest in the direction of Cracow, along the western side of the Carpathians, he will see that it cuts through all the enemy's lines of communication over the Carpathian passes. Consequently, a vigorous thrust by an efficient Rumanian army along that line would compel the enemy to at once evacuate the greater part of Gaiicia, would ruin their plan* of an ad-

vance on- Odessa, and would relieve the Russians of all anxiety on account of their extreme left flank. Thus we see illustrated force of Napo leon's dictum that war is a business of positions'. It is her position on the flank, of the contending armies that gives to Ilumania-'s intervention a value out of all proportion to .the numbers of her forces. SALIENT WITHIN SALIENT. But if Rumania continues to hesitate while the enemy press victoriously forward upon Kiev and" Odessa, her strategical advantages will largely disappear. With Odessa in ' possession of the AustroGermans, Moldavia, the northern arm of Rumania which converts Transylvania into a salient, would be itself, converted into a still more pronounced salient. Weshould have a curious and almost unique strategical position—salient within salient, or "veels vithin veels," as old Weller would have put- it. In such a position, who will hold the strategical advantage? It will be noticed that the position of the enemy at Odessa would itself be in some measure salient as between the Rumanians and the Russians. But the enemy have this advantage : that they can largely reduce the saliency of the Odessa position by pushing their main advance in the direction of Kiev (shown in the map). This would give elbow room for the force advancing upon Odessa, and would enable that force to retreat, should retreat become necessary. Now, in this strategical gamo of salient within salient, tho advantage would go to the-side which was in a position to take the offensive the most, vigorously. The reader who has played chess, or draughts will remember the imimiv.'rablo openings and combinations which ho sees, but is unable to take advantage of, because ho has not the men available. In this case, should Rumania intervene when tho enemy have reached tho shore* (if tho Black Sea, the salient position of Moldavia, will probably prove disastrous 10-hfr if the Austro-Germans aro strong enough to" hold up the Russians eastward of Kiev, and to undertake a combined offensive against her from Transylvania and Bessarabia. But if

the relative strength of the forces engaged is such that the Rumanians can undertake a vigorous offensive along the western side of the Carpathians and also advance into Bessarabia and Galicia, while the Russians take the offensive also from the east, then the result would he disaster for the Germans. In short, the profit from strategical opportunities can only be reaped by those who are strong enough to take advantage of them. GREAT EXPECTATIONS. The best policy for Rumania would obviously be to anticipate events—to strike before she loses that advantage of position which is at present hers. But to this course there is the objection that Bulgaria's attitude is uncertain, and there also seems to be some difficulty in satisfying Rumania's demands. There- is a certain kind of deep sea fish whose jaws are so easily dislocated and whose stomach is so elastic that it can swallow fishes as large as, or even larger than, itself. Moreover, its appetite is closely proportionate to its capacity. Not infrequently at accomplishes the feat of placing its own personality outside that of a fish of almost equal bulk. Unfortunately, this heroic gourmandising achievement does not always meet with, the success which might be hoped for. Sometimes th-s swallowed fish-is not easy of assimilation, 2nd. the result is disastrous to the enterprising gourmand. The appetites of the little Balkan States ruight be compared without exaggeration to that of the fish in question. Rumania's aspirations can be roughly gauged on the accompanying may by striking a curve along the line of the river Theiss, round by the north of Czernowitz, in Bukowina, and along the lino of the Dniester to the Black Sea. Rumania wishes to absorb a territory, Austro-Hungarian and Russian, as large as herself; in fact, she dreams of reconstituting the ancient Roman province of Dacia, of the time of Trajan. During the vicissitudes which accompanied the decay of the Roman Empire each of the little Balkan States had its period of ascendancy under ono famous chieftain or another. Empires of a day, these fleeting dominations crumpled at "once with the death of the men who had built them; yet they etill live in song and story in the folklore of these lands. Each patriot looks to the day when the empire of his dreams shall be restored. WHAT RUMANIA WANT?. The dreams of Rumanian patriots, as distinguished from the actual demands oi practical politicians, were set, forth in a letter to the 'Journal de Geneve' by Professor N. Bassilesco, n member of the Facuhy of Lav,- hi the University of Bucharest, and a- Deputy in the Rumanian Parliament. After stating that Rumania could throw in a million bayonets on the sido of the Allies, ho goes on to demand a& return for this a restitutio in integrum of the ancient Roman province of Dacia-. Twice before, he-asserts, under Stephen the Great and Michael the Brave, ha.ve all the Rumanians been, united under one sceptre. But the vicissitudes of. time, the overwhelming ot the East by the Turks, musters of Bulgaria, Serbia", and Hungary, have not permitted them since that time to consolidate their union as a nation. In 1777 the Turks ceded Bukowin;v—in which even to-day remains the grave of the- Moldavian, prince Stephen the Great—to Austria; and in 1812 she ceded to Russia Bessarabia, the Moldavian country par excellence, which was for centuries the bulwark of Moldavia against the Turks and the Tartars. He demands that Russia restore to Rumania all Bessarabia up to the Dniester, as 6he received it from Turkey in 1812; that all the Rumanian countries situated between the Tiieiss and the Danube be incorporated with Rumania. ' ■ The official demands put forward by the Rumanian Premier, John Bratiano, are much the same, save the claim for Bessarabia. Thus far the obstacles to the conclusion of an agreement have lain in the claim of the Rumanians for the province of Bukowina. as far as a northern boundary fixed by the river Pruth, and for a certain zone of the Transylvanian province of Temesvar. The Bukowina claim would give her the possession of Czernowitz, the capital of the province, whereas the Russians are only willing to concede

territory as far. as the river Serein. 1 (south, of the Pruth). In the province of Temesvar,. Rumania claims the district of' Pancsova on strategical grounds, tin the same and also on national grounds both Serbia and Russia object-. The people of this district are mainly Serbs, while the capital, of the same name, is close to and directly opposite to Belgrade. It is maintained that the possession of that place by Rumania would expose the Serbian capital to attack. For the rest, it may be' added that the bulk of the population of Transylvania is Rumanian, as also is about a half of the population of Bessarabia. The Austxo-Germans are keenly anxious to assist in the realisation of Rumania's national ambitions—in Bessarabia. . They look with less enthusiasm upon her aspirations in Transylvania. Thus far no bargain has been struck with either side. But if Rumania persists in waiting till she can get everything that she wants, and without risk, she may awake some day'to find that the opportunity to obtain more reasonable concessions has fled.