Before leaving the Rumanian news we must once more express
our surprise, though perhaps "amazement verging on consterna- tion" would be the better phrase, at the way in which the unfavourable Rumanian news was received here, even by persons who have some education in military matters and might have been expected to keep their heads out of their handkerchiefs. They actually talked as if the Rumanian setbacks were so serious as to render the intervention of the Rumanians a positive disadvantage to the Allies ! Apparently these gloomy critics had not imagination enough to see that even at the very worst Rumania's plucky adhesion to the side of the Allies was most useful. Judged at the lowest, it was giving occupation, and very arduous occupation, to half-a- million German, Austrian, Bulgarian, and Turkish troops and some thousand pieces of artillery. But what does this mean translated into terms of war ? Unless we are to assume that the Central Powers have a Fortunatus's purse in the way of armies, and that finding half-a-million men for the Balkans does not involve reducing their formations elsewhere, the armies on the Western and Eastern fronts and in front of the Allies at Salonika have been badly bled to provide man-power for Falkenhapi's and Mackensen's furious raids.
