RUMANIA

For six months the Rumanian troops engaged in no important military operations. They held their lines against the Austrian forces, and these latter, apparently, made no strong efforts to advance. Indeed, the entire collapse of the military power of Russia made it practically certain that the Rumanians could not continue the war effectively. When the Bolsheviki came into power, their course toward Rumania was openly hostile, so that the Rumanians were compelled to guard themselves against their one-time allies as well as against the enemy.

Finally Rumania joined in the armistice initiated by the Petrograd Bolsheviki. There seemed to be no question of the desire of the Rumanians to remain loyal to their western allies; but the Balkan country was now surrounded by enemies, and there was apparently little hope that she could maintain her warfare against the Central Powers. Reports from Austrian sources stated that negotiations for a separate peace between Austria and Rumania were going on at Fokshani. Peace with Germany, Turkey, and Bulgaria would naturally follow to save the country from utter destruction.

On January 20, 1917, a Berlin dispatch announced that the Rumanian Premier, Bratiano, had resigned, and was to be succeeded by General Averescu, former Minister of War and commander in chief of the Rumanian forces which had operated in Dobrudja. This report has not since been verified.

That Bulgaria is not completely under German control and is a member of the Quadruple Alliance on terms peculiarly her own has been manifested in more than one way during recent months. As previously stated, in earlier editions of this work, there is a very strong popular opinion in Bulgaria against the alliance with Germany which at times has seemed on the point of manifesting itself in a material way. Occasionally rumors have come through of wholesale military executions, following attempts at mutiny on the part of the troops. Thus Bulgaria's position as an uncertain quantity in the Teutonic alliance is not due to any disloyalty on the part of the king, Ferdinand, but to the disposition of the people, who are interested only in a Macedonia free from Serbia or Greece, and not in the German plans for empire. Though successfully suppressed so far, these subterranean movements do limit the policy of the Bulgarian ruling clique, however loyal to German rule it may be in itself.

During the past November there were frequent rumors of proposal from Bulgaria to the Entente for separate peace, but nothing definite was known at the time. That definite negotiations were at least begun only became known in December, 1917, when the Petrograd Bolsheviki began the publication of secret treaties and correspondence found in the Government archives on their stepping into power. Among these many revelations appeared a telegram from the Russian embassy in Berne, Switzerland, which described a meeting in the embassy office in the latter part of September, 1917, between a Bulgarian representative, said to be the exarch of the Bulgarian church, and a British representative, whose name was not given. The latter asked for a statement of the Bulgarian terms.

The Bulgarian demanded, in return for severing the alliance with Germany and Austria, that Bulgaria be granted all of Dobrudja, an expanded Bulgaria down to the old Media-Rodosto line, with a western frontier along the Morava River, in Serbia, from the junction of that river with the Danube, down through Nish, Pristina, and Uskub; and Macedonia, including Monastir and Saloniki.

This demand the British representative refused to consider, but made the tentative counterproposal of an independent Macedonia, with Saloniki as the capital.

That Bulgaria should have refused this offer is only another illustration of the duplicity of Ferdinand and his governing clique. His one hold on the Bulgarian people has been his pretended espousal of the cause of the Macedonian Bulgars. For long years past the Macedonians strove for an independent Macedonia, but this was made impossible by the policies of the great powers interested. They were, however, on the verge of achieving this ideal after the First Balkan War, when the interference of Austria in Albania caused Serbia and Greece to demand a revision of the treaty which had provided for Macedonian freedom. Against this demand the Macedonians protested, and their leaders were largely instrumental in precipitating the Second Balkan War. The result was their defeat and the Treaty of Bucharest, which forced the Macedonian patriots under the wing of the Bulgarian Government, the only refuge left them.

That Bulgaria should now have refused terms including an independent Macedonia was, indeed, a matter to be kept secret. Ferdinand, naturally, desires Macedonia as an extension of his own territory, although the Macedonians are very little in sympathy with his Greater Bulgaria imperialism and would only accept it as an alternative between freedom on the one hand and subjection to Greece and Serbia on the other.

On October 12, 1917, Emperor William of Germany, accompanied by Prince August Wilhelm and Foreign Secretary Dr. von KÜhlmann, paid an official visit to Ferdinand in Sofia. The streets and houses were profusely decorated and much festivity prevailed.