In 1910 we pointed out to our readers that no
one here could be got to think about the South Slav question, but that in a couple of years' time they would be thinking of nothing else. We may now venture to say that very few people in England are at the moment troubling themselves about the Rumanians in Austria-Hungary, but we also venture to say that before long Rumania irredenta will be the topio of the day. If the three million Rumanians now u.nsler the Hungarian portion of the Dual Monarchy—we might almost have said under the heel of Hungary—were added to the seven millions of free Rumanians, Rumania would become one of the most powerful States of South-Eastern Europe. That fact and the hopes which it naturally inspires should be remembered in any attempt to understand recent develop- ments, i.e., the part which Rumania has been playing in the last few months, and will probably play in the future. Rumania is not, as some wiseacres here have supposed, "the natural ally" of Austria-Hungary.
