NEWS OF THE WEEK
• THOUGH the news from the Western front, from the Italian front, from Salonika, and from Russia is all good, and in some cases very good indeed, it would be idle to pretend that there has not been a certain amount of anxiety shown in this country about the military situation in Rumania. Many public writers show signs of depression owing to the undoubted fact that the Rumanians clearly bit off rather more than they could chew when they penetrated so deeply into Transylvania, and have now had to fall back. But though this is an undeniable fact, and one for which we are sorry, we are bound to say that it does not strike us as in any sense proving that our Rumanian Allies have placed themselves in a position of real danger, or that there is the least chance of the Germans being able to play in Rumania the part which they played in Serbia a year ago. In the first place, the Rumanians are five times as strong as the Serbians in numbers. Next, the Germans are very much weaker than they were when they overran Serbia. Finally, owing to our position at Salonika, our power of diverting strength from the attack on Rumania is also five times as great as it was in the analogous case. We hope, then, that we shall pot be thought to be incorrigibly optimistic if we say that in our opinion there is no real cause for serious anxiety in regard to Rumania.
