We are sorry none the less that the Peace Conference
should have felt obliged to address what unofficial Paris telegrams describe as an ultimatum " to Rumania in regard to the action of the Rumanian Army in Hungary. On hearing of this Rumania gave the extraordinary explanation that none of the seventy-odd wireless messages sent to her during the past fortnight had arrived. It may be true that Rumania has exceeded the instructions of the Allies, and has ventured to recover for herself the railway material and other things stolen from her by the Magyars. But it is equally true that, if Rumania had remained passive, the Bolsheviks would still be ruling in Budapest and flouting the Allies. The Peace Conference was saved from the consequences of its own inde- cision by Rumania, and, we fear, is more angry than grateful, while the Rumanians for their part have probably been carried away by the not unnatural excitement of a triumph over their old and cruel enemies. We hope that calmer counsels will now prevail both in Paris and in Bucharest.
