Galicia, together with the humiliations imposed on their reli- gious and political leaders, increased the indignation provoked from the first by the conduct of the Germans in Belgium and invaded France. Soon after the Russian retreat from the Buko- vina, moreover, rumours began to spread about the man-hunts organized by Austrian gendarmes against Rumanian " traitors."
The head of the Government, knowing the inadequacy of the military preparation and the difficulty of completing it, thought best to delay yet longer. Meanwhile Count Czernin, Austro- Hungarian representative at Bucharest, spoke to the Crown Prince Ferdinand (married to Princess Marie of Edinburgh, whose sympathies were well known, and whose political attitude and charitable activities were equally admirable) about the " miserable treachery " of Rumania if she abandoned her allies (Diplomatische Aktenslilcke betreffend die Beziehungen Oester- reich-U ngarns zu Rumdnien in der Zeit von 22 Juli 1914. bis 27 August 1916, Vienna, 1916). The irresistible trend of public opinion was pointed out to him in reply. In Parliament dis- cussion was forbidden on the burning question of relations with the belligerent powers. Troops concentrated in view of possible events were now partially demobilized. And on the side of Austria all that was done was to offer the Rumanians of Transyl- vania, through the Orthodox Archbishop, " a certain consider- ation for the wishes of our non-Magyar fellow-citizens relative to the church-schools," and " the admission of the maternal language in direct communication with the authorities," and " modifications of certain dispositions of the electoral law."
As Rumania refused to allow the passage of munitions for Turkey, whose capital was now menaced by the attack in the Bosporus, war on Serbia began anew in 1915- The Bratianu Government, which continued negotiations about the frontiers of the Bukovina, claiming to receive back the province precisely as Austria had taken it in 1775, and also about the frontiers of the Banat, where owing to Serbian colonization in the western' districts there was no decisive preponderance of Germans and Rumanians, once more managed to hold public impatience in check. Henceforward, all the Central Powers could exact from RuTiania was the passing of measures necessary for provision- ing their populations. Italy's declaration of war in May 1915 served to raise still higher the popular excitement, which was now clamouring for a prompt decision in the only possible sense.
But when the offensive of General Brussilov once more reached Galicia and the Bukovina, further delay was impossible, espe- cially as now, in the month of July, the treaty assuring Rumania of the desired territorial limits had just been signed. Russia became urgent: the Rumanian Cabinet was warned that delay would cause the cancelling of the territorial engagements. Certain illusions had been cherished with regard to Bulgaria, whose Prime Minister Radoslavov had formerly declared in Nov. 1834. that his country was " ready to give all the guarantees which should eventually be desired that she would not attack Rumania if the latter should take part in the general war." Now, however, Russia, who undertook to unite with the Ruma- nian forces when they entered Transylvania, and to march in con- cert upon Buiaoest, was asked to send into the Dobrudja troops sufficient to supervise the somewhat mistrusted neighbour who hid participated with such zest in the annihilation of Serbia. Without having ever made one serious proposal, the German and Austrian ministers prepared to depart the moment Ru- mania's declaration of war arrived at Vienna (Aug. 28 1916).
As regards the internal political situation, the Liberal Govern- ment, which had achieved the entry into war unassociated with any of the opposition parties (for Maiorescu, summoned to the palace on the eve of the declaration, had fancied he was going to be called to power in order to prevent the rupture) , did not even call the Chambers together to obtain their approval of the step. The armies were swiftly crossing the mountains by all the passes, to unite and form one single front upon a diagonal line in the middle of Transylvania. The enemy's feeble forces were every- where retreating; but Germany had soon moved in her ally's interests, and had declared war. Bulgarians armed and led by German officers now surprised at Turtucaia a badly organized
Rumanian army, forced it to capitulate, and advanced through unresisting Silistra into the Dobrudja, which despite General Averescu's sturdy defensive was soon the prey of Marshal Mackensen; while in Transylvania itself General Falkenhayn was striking a decisive blow near Sibiu-Hermannstadt.
For the Rumanians nothing was left but the tragic duty of defending, with utterly inadequate technical preparation, their Carpathian frontier. This defensive they succeeded in pro- longing until the end of Nov., when, served by the spies of the Austro-Hungarian companies for the exploitation of the forests, and favoured by exceptionally mild weather, they penetrated the valley of the Jiu, and occupying Craiova proceeded towards Bucharest, whose fortifications, constructed against the Russians in 1880 by the Belgian General Brialmont, had no longer ar.y mili- tary value. After brilliant initial succ:ss a stand was made on the Argesh by advice of the French General Berthclot, but ended in defeat. The army retreated in disorder towards Moldavia to reorganize there, sheltered behind Russian troops who had at last arrived on this new theatre of war; king, ministers, and par- liament were already in the ancient Moldavian capital of Jassy, where they had to remain until the end of 1918.
A counter-offensive, carefully prepared during 1917, had already begun, and in July had opened the path through Wallachia, when the Russian defection in Galicia and the sub- sequent push by Mackensen, who threw all the forces at his disposal upon the Sereth for an advance upon Odessa, brought upon the new Rumanian army the great disaster of Marasesti a battle lasting ten days and ending in complete inability for further resistance. As the disintegration of the Russian army proceeded, yesterday's allies turning into pillaging bands dan- gerous to the whole life of the country, hostilities were perforce suspended; and eventually it became necessary to submit to the armistice imposed by the Germans on General Shtcherbachev, who had assumed the chief command on the Rumanian front, passing over King Ferdinand's right to the supreme command. Rumania, nevertheless, parleyed yet another two months before entering into negotiations that could only mean the abandon- ment of her rights, .the diminution of her pre-war territorial pos- sessions, and the loss of her economic independence.
Agrarian and Electoral Reforms. Ever since in Dec. 1916 the Parliament had met at Jassy and enthusiastically approved the prosecution of the war to a finish, Bratianu had shared the burden of power with Take Jonescu and his section of the Con- servative party. (Filipcscu had died at Bucharest before the debacle.) The activities of the Coalition Ministry had naturally been limited to ordinary current affairs. But in April the agra- rian question once more became urgent, owing in part to the reactions on the public mind of the triumph of the social revolu- tion in Russia. (The chief of the Rumanian socialists, a Bul- garian named Rakovski, after having been kept for some time under arrest at Jassy, had managed to escape, and was now agitating with his followers against the king and the bourgeoisie.') Influenced by ths Crown, the Conservatives at last accepted the radical policy of expropriation, to be applied to an area fixed at- 2,000,000 hectares.
Parliament debated the project for two months, the result being a law promulgated in July 1917, which left the original proprietors 500 hectares at most for each separate estate (ab- sentees being completely expropriated), and assigned them a compensation in State bonds, the amount not to exceed twenty times the annual value of the property. A scheme for the com- munal holding by village associations of the land thus obtained was rejected in favour of the traditional individual tenure. Details of the distribution were to be fixed by law; but now, under the menace of a German occupatibn even in Moldavia, members of parliament were dispersing. When the triumph of the Central Powers seemed certain, and the armistice foreshadowed an early peace, the leaders of the war-party were practically forced to flee the country. A number of them took refuge in Paris, where they formed a national Committee of Claims.
Reunion of Bessarabia; Peace of Bucharest; Expulsion of Occupying Forces. Already, however, the depredation of the
