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CHAPTER XVII

RUMANIA AND THE NEAR EAST IN 1916

NEW country entered the ranks of the Allies

in August, 1916. This country was Rumania, the most northerly of the Balkan states, situated for the most part north of the Danube River. As may be seen from the map, Rumania at this time was shaped something like the letter J, part of its territory extending north and south, the other part east and west. These two parts of the country, like two great arms, nearly surrounded the Austrian province of Transylvania, but were cut off from it by the Carpathian Mountains. Rumania entered the war for reasons similar to those that brought Italy in; she wished to bring under her rule large areas of Austria which were inhabited by Rumanians. This race is of Latin origin, Rumania having once been a Roman colony. The Rumanians differ greatly from the neighboring Magyars, or Slavs. However, as we have seen so often before in the course of the great war, it had made no difference to the autocratic rulers of Austria that Transylvania rightly belonged to Rumania, that the inhabitants of Transylvania had the right to say by whom they should be governed. The boundary between Rumania and Austria was

fixed along the Carpathians because these mountains formed a military barrier; in other words, made the Austrian frontier safe. But the Rumanians in Transylvania sang their folk-songs and dreamed of freedom as so many other oppressed races were dreaming, all over Europe. "Why," they said, "should we pay taxes to the Emperor of Austria, when we do not want his government and are not fairly represented in it?" It was the same question that caused our American forefathers to declare, "No taxation without representation," and free themselves from the rule of England.

Rumania entered the war at this particular time because of the great success which had attended General Brusiloff's drive against the Austrians. As we have seen in a previous chapter, the Russian armies from the Pripet Marshes to the Rumanian border had swept far to the west, and now stood along the Carpathian Mountains at Rumania's frontier. They expected to advance through these mountains into southern Austria, and the Rumanians planned to link their armies up with the Russians, and advance with them. The Rumanian armies numbered about six hundred thousand men, with reserves of perhaps an equal number. Their assistance, it was expected, would add greatly to the strength of the Allied cause. From a military standpoint their decision to enter the war at this time was sound.

From a political standpoint, however, it was a tragedy, although the Rumanian leaders could not have been expected to know it. Rumania was sacrificed as a result of a wide-spread campaign of treachery which was going on in Russia. As has been pointed out before, Germany did not depend upon the might of her armies alone to gain her victories. Her secret agents were at work everywhere-in Italy, in France, in the United States, in Russia-trying by means of bribery, of corruption of every sort, to disorganize the power of her enemies. Her efforts in Russia were beginning to bear fruit. A new Russian premier was in office, Boris Stürmer, a man of German blood and sympathies. He induced Rumania to enter the war by promises of Russian assistance, which promises were never kept. When the Rumanian armies advanced into Transylvania they expected the armies of Russia to advance with them, but the Russians did not move, and Rumania was left to carry on the fight alone. It is highly probable that the whole scheme originated in the office of the German general staff, whose power in Russian affairs was increasing daily, and was soon to plunge that unhappy country into a frightful revolution.

The Rumanian plan of campaign was simple, and at first proved successful. The shape of the country, as has been pointed out, was such that by advancing through the Carpathians westward

from her north-and-south frontier, and northward from her east-and-west frontier, she could enclose, as within two out-reaching arms, all that part of Transylvania lying between them. On August 27 the Rumanian armies were on the move, and within four days had advanced far into Austrian territory and taken the strongly defended town of Orsova. The Allies were jubilant.

One of the singular features of the Rumanian advance into Transylvania is the fact that she left her southern flank, which borders on Bulgaria, virtually undefended. It has been asserted that an agreement existed by which Bulgaria was not to attack her. If such an agreement was ever made, it was very soon broken, for on September 3 a powerful army of Bulgarians, Germans, and Turks, led by General von Mackensen, the conqueror of Galicia and Serbia, crossed the Rumanian frontier and advanced into the Dobrudja. This part of Rumania is a long, narrow strip of territory lying south of the river Danube, and, as has previously been pointed out, was in part taken from Bulgaria by Rumania after the second Balkan War. Now Bulgaria saw her opportunity to get it back.

Von Mackensen and his forces advanced at once toward the great Cernavoda Bridge across the Danube, the only bridge over the river east of Belgrade, and soon was in possession of its southern end. Meanwhile, the Rumanians, advancing with

great success, reached Hermannstadt, and now controlled about a third of Transylvania. To protect their southern flank, they sent forces of considerable size into the Dobrudja, and with some assistance from Russian troops succeeded in driving von Mackensen back. The Allies at Saloniki, far to the south, had meanwhile started a spirited attack against the Bulgarians, and some of the Bulgarian troops with von Mackensen were sent south to assist in repelling it.

But now a new factor was to come into the situation. The Germans, who had been waiting for the opportune moment to crush Rumania, had been quietly sending forces to the assistance of the Austrians. In fact, the rapid Austrian retreat was part of their plan. A powerful army was assembled north of Hermannstadt, under the command of General von Falkenhayn, the former chief of the German general staff, whose failure at Verdun, as we have seen, had cost him his position. Once this army began operations, the fate of Rumania was sealed. On the twenty-sixth of September the Austro-German forces began to advance, and by the middle of October the Rumanians had lost virtually all the territory they had gained, and were back in the passes of the Carpathians through which they had advanced. Had Russia, at this time, sent an army to the west across the Carpathians into Hungary, they could have gotten behind von Falkenhayn's forces, cut his communica