The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1918. RUMANIA'S STAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 75, 26 February 1918, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1918. RUMANIA'S STAND.

The moral significance of Rumania's intervention in the great war has probably been understood less fully than any other important event which has taken place since August 1914. Even among Rumania's allies, welcome as Rumania's help was to them, and well disposed as they were to give her their help in return, there was lacking, adequate knowledge of the vital issues for democracy and freedom at stake in Rumanian lands. Among countries then neutral there was probably even less understanding of the questions at issue. Mr A. W. A. Leeper, in a booklet entitled ,"The Justice of Rumania's Cause," says that the defects in the constitutional and social condition of contemporary Rumania are the defects not of a decadent but of an immature political community. Like

Russia, Rumania "has not yet fully entered into the European heritage of which barbarian tyranny and lack of connection with the Latin and AngloSaxon worlds have so long deprived her, It is a frequent accusation of the press of the Central Powers against Rumania that she is a thoroughly decadent and disunited Power. (It is interesting to remember that down to 1913 German writers were accustomed to point with pride to Rumania as a splendidly organised State on the Prussian model, with its large German community and nourishing German; schools.) The Bulgarian press is proud of contrasting

the free, democratic Bulgarian nation—the foreign policy of which recent events have shown to be entirely in the hands of its foreign Tsar and his nominees—with the Rumanian, composed as it is of selfish and . corrupt boyars and an oppressed and unenlightened peasantry. The Hungarian Socialist organ, Nepszava, has repeatedly declaimed against the medievalism and feudalism and Byzantinism of Rumanian public life, and en-' couraged the Magyar and non-Magyar. masses to forget their own grievances' and vent their enthusiasm against absolutism on the public foe. Not very long ago the Frankfurter Zcitung wrote a highly-coloured picture of the' deplorable conditions in Rumania, and represented the German con-, querors as liberators and apostles of freedom. We have seen how much and bow little justification there is for charges, which, even if justified, it would ill become Rumania's enemies to make. Rumanian political and social life is ultra-modern if compared with the reactionarism and oligarchism which obtain in Hungary. As for Prussia in Rumania as in Russia, Prussia's host, if not her only, friends, were to be found among the very boyars and exploiters of the people whom she so self-righteously abuses. It is true that German capital and German science have powerfully helped in the development of modern Rumania —not out of altruism, but as a good commercial speculation. But what sympathy or help has Germany given to the growth of democratic feeling and cultural development there? It is from France and Italy that Rumanians have drawn their political and spiritual inspiration. From Berlin and Vienna they received little but trade wares, political loans, and diplomatic instructions. Tn Rumania's fight for freedom the economic side is not unimportaui*.-.. Ji\»t as.jn ,Jta].v, just as in Russia, so in Rumania, German

economic expansion, set in motion in the 'SO's by Bismarck, passed gradually into political control of thb country. Not only the trade but the finances of Rumania soon became pre-: dominantly the sphere of German banks such as the Deutsche Bank and the Disconto Gesellschaft. The En-| tent Powers apathetically allowed Germany to enmesh Rumania finan- ( dally, and with German finance goes hand-in-hand German foreign policy, j A German victory or a "drawn" war would mean the complete political and | economic subjection of Rumania by the Central Powers. Likej Italy,. Rumania had no choice but to be the ally or the enemy of' Austria-Hungary. There were such acute differences between the two neighbouring States—over Transilvania in especial—that they must be settled or postponed by war or aliiance. The alliance concluded secret- j lv in 1883 between Rumania and the , Germanic Empires was the sole alter-j native to a disastrous war. As the . Rumanian Declaration of War on J Austria-Hungary explained, "Rumania," in concluding the , Treaty of 1883, saw in the relations of friendships and alliance which were established between the three Great Powers a precious pledge for her domestic j tranquillity, as well as for the improvement of the lot of the Rumanians of Austria-Hungary." In the course of three decades she found however, that not only had she thrown in her lot with Powers whose! policy and political principles ran counter to her own, but had not even j by doing so saved the Rumans of t Hungary from continued persecution. Like Italy, Rumania was not the sin-. ner but the sinned against in the

matter of treaties. Just as Austria-, Hungary's Balkan policy, aggressive and pan-German, broke the spirit of the alliance with Italy, so was it also with Rumania. If again, the flagrant and continued oppression of the Human s of Hungary could not he mitigated by friendly representations and political help from the neighbouring kingdom, then it must he settled by the sword. Grievously as she suffered for her ideal, Rumania, through the mouth of her king and foremost men, has proclaimed her belief that it was "worth while," and that she does not regret it. She has risked all lor Justice and Freedom, let justice and freedom be her reward.