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ADELAIDE: THURSDAY,
NOVEMBER 2, 1916.
THE TENSION RAISED.
The gallantry of the Roumanians has
been rewarded with the success it deserves.
They have held the outlets of the passes in
the Carpathians long enough to enable the
Russians to make good their promise of assistance
and render it possible for this
morning's messages to speak of the worst
3 s over. It has even become a question,
not whether von Falkenhayn can continue
his advance, but whether he can hold his
ground against the increasing pressure on
his left without the heavy reinforcements he
is demanding as "absolutely necessary." It
would seem, therefore, that General Bela
yefT. formerly Chief of the Russian Staff,
who is directing operations in this quarter,
was not over-sanguine in "his prediction a
day or two ago that we might rely on the
situation righting itself within ten days. If
expectations should be realised, much more
will have been achieved than the preserva-
tion of Roumania. If Germany was to
safeguard the much-talked-of "corridor"
through Constantinople to Asia Minor, it
was above all necessary to break the connection
between the Russians and the Rou-
manians,, which was the object of the coup
that culminated last week in the capture of
Constanza. But the stage, it would appear,
is passed where any disaster of the kind
need be apprehended, and if the present
operations should place the Russo-German-'
plan co-operation on a basis absolutely im-
pregnable, then all the advantages anticipated
from that co-operation, notably the
elimination of Bulgaria from the war, will
again come into sight.
It would be well if it were possible to
believe -that the gravity of the Balkan,
crisis- from which the Allies are now emerging
was exaggerated by Sir Edward Carson
when he said that if Roumania were obliterated
there would be no conquering
Germany; within any reasonable time. But
there is a consensus of opinion that with
all her heavy losses Germany is still very
strong, and that if the war is to be de-
cided by the mere attention" of her army
the Allies are in for further sacrifices on
a scale appalling to contemplate. For such
a contingency they are bound to provide,
hence the call for more and ever more
men. Happily, for all the part which
trench work has played, we are not forced
to the conclusion that the resources
strategy are beggared, and that we must
content ourselves to the end with hoping
for what may come of a process through
which, by their superior appliances, j the
Allies are able to do a trifle more in the
way of slaughter than the enemy. It is
poor consolation for the loss of eight or
nine, men that the enemy has suffered by
the loss of ten. Now, the Balkan campaign
has been welcomed in many quarters
as affording a hope that mind may
once a earn play the past it has done
other fears, and as it did in this in its
earliest stages. Rightly does the "Manchester
Guardian's" _ military correspondent
dwell on the battle of the Marne as
one instance of such a triumph of mind
over mind, and the Russian victories
in Volhynia as another. May not the. sudden
and quick movement by Joffre at Verdun
the other day be cited, as a third?
On the Somme there has been brilliant
proceeds, but circumstances . have not enabled
Our successes thereto lie more than
tactical; and what is looked for is a great
victory to be achieved at a much smaller
cost than has been incurred in the slow, if
sure,- advance on the Somme. Roumania's
belligerency was welcomed as affording
promise of such a triumph. It is premature
to criticise the failure of the Transyl-
vanian plan. Possibly for the sake of the
moral effect that would have accrued from
their union with the Russians in the Car-
pathians the risk was not extravagant
which the Roumanians incurred. Had the
enterprise succeeded the enemy would
have been menaced in a vital spot, for the
Allies would have had the plains of Hungary
at their mercy.
The vigor with which at this crisis tile
Bulgarians flung themselves on the province
of Dobrudja was probably unlooked
for, and their concentration on Ttirtakai,
the nearest point on the Danube to Bucharest,
must be owned to be a master-
piece of strategy. By means of the railway
which gave them the run of the entire frontier,
they were able to intercept a Russian
army at Dobrrtcb. while they overpowered
the garrisons at Ttirtakai and
Silistria. The recall of troops from Transylvania
was the immediate result of the
plan, and those left behind were inadequate
to withstand the Austro-German
army, which by that time had been hurried
to the Carpathians. Henceforward the objective
of Roumania, if she is safely delivered
from her present embarrass-
ments, will be Bulgaria, whose
fate it may be hoped, will soon
be in the balance. In defence of Bulgaria
the Germans, for their own sake, will exert
their utmost available strength, for not
only is the retention of Bulgaria as an ally
essential from a territorial standpoint, but
Colonel Barone, the Italian expert, reasonably
argues that it is to a Balkan victory
that von Hindenburg is looking to reconcile
German opinion to that retirement in
the West which every day renders more
unavoidable.' A general onslaught on Bulgaria
by the Allies will not be attempted
without a concerted plan, in the execution
of which the Salonika army will play a
more vigorous part than it has yet done.
Unfortunately for clearer understanding
of the situation, the Greek crisis remains
as obscure as ever., Some reports have
stated that the Allies themselves are not
at one-as to the-<ksiral>len«aB-erf bringing
Crewe itftb^tne'jtör, for ^stíé^feotiM only
be paid with territory towards Italy deems
herself io^have^-pridr claim; yet the continued
efforts indicated in official statement
is in the House of Commons to stand
well with the Greek King seem to show
that the hope is not abandoned that in the
attack on Bulgaria the Allies will have the
help of the Hellenic kingdom.
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