RUMANIA'S WAR POLICY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11506, 30 September 1915, Page 4

RUMANIA'S WAR POLICY.

THE POSITION REVIEWED.

A co : tier of phrases who made any study of tho peliry of Rumania during tho past two years, might, without; difficulty, evolve in saying in regard io her that iri her .she was the Fabins Maximus of European nations She Im been content; to wait, says tho I ik'J on correspondent of tho " Monitor," and to win by waiting, and whatever way be said said for and against the diplomacy of other nations which have touched the Balkans, there can be no doubt as to the succors of the diplomacy of Rumania. Soma two years ago when then Balkans were aflame from one end to tho other, Rumania steadily held aloof until such moment as her intervention became resolutely decisive. When Bulgaria, having taken up arms against her former allied, found herself outmatched at all points, with tho Turk, hn eyes on opportunity, bestirring himsTf on her southern borders, Rumania, suddenly assumed the position of arbiter, insisted that the struggle must come to an end, and threw her army corps across the Danube and marched on Sofia to enforce her mandate. In this way, without firing a shot, Rumania secured to herself, for the time being at any rate, the position of first amongit equals in Balkan affairs, and later on, by the treaty of Bucharest, obtained from Bulgaria large accession of territory, and was accorded by a general consent, the position of guardian of the latest Balkan agreement. Bulgaria sumbitted with the worst of grace, and for twelve months her attitude reminded one of that of a famous character in fiction who in his quarrels with his ne : glibo ! ir k~pt recalling things that be might have said and returning to say them. There was no sign of any t"*lil settlement, nevertheless Rumania held on .stoutly to her position as guaidian of the treaty of Bucharest. TREATY OF BUCHAREST. Then came the war, the statesmen of Europe, the neutral statesmen, flocked into their council chambers, took note of the events and struggled to reach some fixed decision. In many old positions were at once abandoned as utterly untenable, but in many other cases these old positions were clung to with desperate tenacity. The treaty of Bucharest was on© of these latter, and the first pronouncement of Rumanfi in regard to. her attitude was to reaffirm her position in regard to this treaty. Few people fco-day, even the most conservative of diplomatists, consider that the treaty of Bucharest is still operative in its completeness. The student of history, as he pores over the thumbed page® of Rumania's record during the past .year, knows its every paragraph and every statement, as it has appeared to the world, by rot©* e( Runiuiii& first of all did this, and then she did that, and then this happened," and so on and so forth. A POLICY EVOLVES It is beginning to be seen, however, that underlying all these series of apparently disconnected events, Rumanian policy lias been almost unconsciously shaping itself towards a position foreseen only by very few. , r months past," said a Rumanian diploma ti&t recently, " some of us have been labouring to make the Entente Powers see that by preserving .her attitude of strict neutrality, distinctly benevolent towards the Entente, Rumania has been dtoing a greater service to the Allies than if she had. sent 50.000 men to the Dardanelles. *or some nine months now, in spite ot all the efforts which Germany has made to prevent it, Rumania has blocked the passage of munitions across her territory to Turkey. The effect of this is now coming to be seen, and as Berlin and Vienna bring every conceivable form of pressure to bear upon Bucharest to allow the passage of munitions across her territory to Constantinople, it is beginning to be seen what a great effect the attitude adoped by Rumania may have oil the ultimate event. GERMAN ANXffiTY. So the position slowly defines itself, and from various sources it becomes

BEING DEFINED SLOWLY BUT SURELY.

SERVICES TO THE ENTENTE POWERS.

clear that Germany regards tho situa.fcion with increasing anxiety. With a freedom of comment which lias gener•ally been th© exception during the •past uvelvt! moa:t' . various German naporg have i*sw-.'.' i:wo warnings iu Rumania on. tho clearly indicating by their attitude that the question of munitions for Tui-Key is one of fundamental importance. The '' Vorwarts," in a recent issue, after declaring that Rumania remains firm in her refusal to allow tho transport of weapons and ammunition, goes on to maintain that upon tho free passage of transports between th© central Powers and Turkey depends the late of the Dardanelles, whicn. it adds, is the greatest danger which threatens the d';fenders, and upon the fate of the Dardanelles depends the fate of Constantinople. From the '' Vorvrarts '' one passes to tho "Frankfurter Zeitung," and hero a simple statement of position has given place to threats!. Germany and Austria-Hungary, says th© "Frankfurter Zeitung," are now free to decide whether they will or will not consider themselves bound by _ their agreement with Rumania. Their interest in the further independence of Rumania continues to exist, but we can conceive of a case arising, perhaps at thy coming peace negotiations, when the interest, in support of which no obligations any longer exist, must take place behind the more important interests of tho central Powers themselves. TURKEY'S POSITION. So the straws blow up into the air and are carried all in one direction. The latest of these is tho insistent rumour that comes through from various sources that Turkey is already moving with a view to securing a separate peace. This question of the desire of one or other of the belligerents to conclude a separate peace with some other belligerent has been so often confidently affirmed that the attitude of the plain man such assertions is, to Bay the least of it, sceptical. For what it is worth it may be recorded, however, that the " Corriero de la Sera 5 ' declares, "on the word of its Bucharest correspondent, that the Turkish Minister of Justice and other delegates have passed through Bulgaria on the way to Switzerland, there to open up negotiations with their Allies with a view to concluding a separate peace. So considerable an authority on the subject as Sir Edwin Pears has insisted that euch an action on the part of Turkey is something more than possfble. | THE VITAL RAILWAYS. Finally, the last straw which has swept up and followed its predecessors is the apparent diminishing of the effort in Qallipoli. the holding up of troope wTro were in readiness for transport from various mobilising centres, and the persistent impression that is j gained that the debacle of the Turkish | forces from simple lack of munitions is I only a matter of time. So the observer ! of events comes back from these excursions abroad to Rumania, and he finds the Rumanian diplomatist nothing surprised and not a little selfsatisfied. Anyone who had taken that large scaled map of which we have heard so much, and studied carefully the Turkish position with a special attention to railways, would have seen how entirely cut off Turkey is from all supply of munitions save that which is carried' across Rumanian territory. There is one line from Budapest branching off into two at Brcos. One of these comes within sight of the Carpathians at Hermanstadt, and the other some seventy miles further east at Kronstadt. but here the road from Rudapest, Vienna, Berlin and so on back to the source of all supply at Essen, comes to a halt. Rumania will 6tand firm on this question, a prominent diplomatist said quite recently. She is determined not to permit the passage of munitions from Germany to Turkey, and, he added, with an expressive shrug of his shoulders, "If Rumania is attacked' iu consequence, well, it is better that she should be attacked than she should attack."