WILL RUMANIA QUIT?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19800, 18 November 1919, Page 6

WILL RUMANIA QUIT?

Following close on the Paris cable message that “ tho Rumanian Note regarding tho evacuation of Hungary lias been received and is considered to be evasive,” came the news, on Saturday, that the Supreme Council had decided to order the Rumanians to evacuate Budapest. It is now over three months since Hungary was overrun by Rumanian troops, who remained iu possession of the capital in direct defiance of the Supremo Council in Paris- The position is a most interesting one, for Rumania is no longer numbered amongst tho Allies, having withdrawn her representatives from the Peace Conference owing to the proposed allocation of tho Hungarian lands, and subsequently concluding a peace with the Bolshevik Government which secured her in possession of Bessarabia. Tho failure of tho Allies to insist on the carrying out of their orders to D’Annunzio and Von dor Goltz probably emboldened Rumania to adopt a policy tantamount to defiance of the Allies and the League of Nations. Rumania is no longer a minor Balkan State. She now has an area as great as that of Italy, supporting a population of 16,000,000, and is now more powerful than were all the Balkan States together at the outbreak of the war. Mr Frank Simouds has clear-cut views on tho subject. Writing a mouth ago on the Rumanian position he said:— ” In less than half a century Rumania will, in all human probability, be a Great Power. Moreover, she must bo reckoned with henceforth as a very potent factor in till combinations that may be made. She has an excellent army organised by tho French General Staff, battle-trained, an army which, despite opening disasters duo to Russian treachery, and later surrender due to Russian collapse, displayed remarkable courage, and skill, and remains one of the considerable military forces in Europe, actually taking rank after the armies of the five Great Powers. In addition, by her position Rumania controls the Lower Danube, and, as recent events have shown, Hungary is completely at her mercy. Thus she supplies tho only possible avenue of approach to South Russia in case tho Allies ever decide to join hands with tho Ukrainians against the Bolshevists. What I am trying to make clear is that Rumania is herself henceforth a nation whose military and economic resources, whose army, whose grain, whose oil, whose minerals, give her a position quite unlike that which she occupied when she was only the largest of the minor Balkan States.” The present position in Hungary appears to be the outcome of the Allies' failure

to carry out the terms of the secret treaty made between France, Groat Britain, Russia and Rumania, on the strength of which Rumania entered the war. As the Allies have admitted their liability under the secret treaty with Italy, it is difficult to see how they can escape giving Rumania what they promised her when they persuaded her to enter the struggle on their side. On the other hand, to give Rumania what was promised her means almost certain trouble with the Jugoslavs and Serbs. To thrust the Magyars under Rumanian rule, moreover, would bo to invite a permanent state of war iu Central Europe. Wo may take it, therefore, that the greatest possible pressure will be brought to hear on the Bucharest Government to induce it to agree to something less than was promised it in 1916, leaving the final delimitation of frontiers to the Allies.