ROUMANIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CV, Issue 16126, 22 November 1916, Page 7

ROUMANIA.

ROUMANIA IN SORE STRAITS. INTERVENTION ILL TIMED, (Australian and N.Z, Cable Assn.) Received 10.40 p.m., Nov, 21st. ""LONDON, Nov, 21, The "Daily Telegraph's" 'military correspondent states that Roumania

is sorely beset, and it is now apparent that the moment for her intervention was chosen with complete disregard of the strategic needs. The Rotimanian army might have been use I with decisive effect if it had been employed at the right moment, but intervention was positively perilous in August 1916, when tho Germanic armies were still intact, with their reserves, whenoa the German commanders were able to organise an invasion of Roumania. virile holding up the British, French, and Russian armies by means of rearguard tactics on a gigantic scale. Either tho Entente General Staffs lacked a singlo directing brain, or there was a want of candour between the Allied Cabinpts.

The conditions of the Carpathians struggle do not admit of full defensive preparations. Deep ravines and dense forests cover the approach of the attacking columns, and the Germans are able to choose their points of attack. Falkonhayn is perpetually seeking to turn tho Roirmanian defences by outflanking manoeuvres. As the frontier i« of immense length he. is able to throw the weight of hi,s army against any of the six passes. Fortunately General Avaresco is one of the best generals with lihe Entente, and he continues to hold up Falkenhayn's main attack in tho Predeal Pass, which aims at the priceless oilfields. If t!he Germans succeed, in debouching on the Wallachian plain, Bucharest is a strongly fortified centre of a formidable system of defence in Moldavia;

A GERMAN CLAIM. (Australian, and N.ZI Cable Assn. and Renter.) Received 11.20 p.m., Nov. 21st. According to the German evening communique, the Austro-Germans aw approaching Krajova, the capital of western Wallachia.