LEADING ARTICLES. 



483 



pends largely on close Balkan solidar- 

 ity, translated into a Customs Union. 

 It is important that the port should be 

 further developed. Autonomy, joint 

 control, or annexation by one of the 

 Balkan States — each of these solutions 

 has both advantages and inconveniences. 

 The one decided upon should, of course, 

 be that which conforms most to the de- 

 velopment of the port. Should the con- 

 flict, however, become insoluble among 

 the interested oarties, the question nr ht 

 be submitted to arbitration by the Triple 

 Entente. Salonica ought not to be al- 

 lowed to remain a cause of discord ; it 

 should be a centre of life, and in a 

 Macedonia, secularly given up to 

 anarchy, a centre of civilisation. 



ROUMANIA' S RIGHTS. 



G. F. Abbot enters the lists on behalf 

 of Roumania, and in the Quarterly Re- 

 view writes that the grounds upon which 

 the Roumanian Government bases its 

 claims to territorial compensation from 

 Bulgaria are of an entirely practical 

 nature. 



The rectification of the Dobrudja 

 frontier is described as indispensable to 

 the security of the trans-Danubian king- 

 dom. The necessity for such a demand, 

 it is affirmed, is not of Roumania's own 

 creation, but the logical consequence of 

 a political crime committed against her 

 by Russia in 1879, when the valuable 

 assistance rendered bv the Roumanian 

 army to Russia in her war against Tur- 

 key was rewarded by the loss of Bess- 

 arabia — a Roumanian province of 

 which the Russians, with a cynicism rare 

 even in Eastern Europe, robbed their 

 allies — and the grant, in exchange, of the 

 Bulgarian district of Dobrudja, which 

 Roumania did not covet. At the time the 

 trans-Danubian kingdom was obliged 

 to bow to the will of the Powers, as 

 expressed in the Treaty of Berlin, and it 

 tried to make the best of a very bad 

 bargain by constructing the port of 

 Constantza at an immense cost. In the 

 absence, how r ever, of a defensible fron- 

 cier, and in view of the fear that Bul- 

 garia will one day endeavour to recover 

 the territory taken from her in 1878, the 

 Bucharest Government cannot but feel 

 its position precarious, and it is the duty 



of the Powers which have placed it in 

 that position to strengthen it by a new 

 delimitation. As long as the status 

 quo established by the Treaty of Berlin 

 remained in substance inviolate, Rou- 

 mania refrained from raising a question 

 calculated to cause a disturbance. But 

 since the order of things has been com- 

 pletely altered by the Balkan Allies, 

 and to their enormous advantage, 

 equity, expediency and necessity alike 

 dictate the voluntary compensation 

 which Roumania, but for her deference 

 to the Powers and her regard for peace, 

 could have seized by force of arms. 



ROUMANIA ASKED TOO LITTLE ! 



Professor Pompiliu Eliade, in the 

 Corrcspoiidaut, endeavours to state the 

 Roumanian view of the consequences of 

 the Balkan War. He evidently thinks 

 King Charles has been too modest for 

 doing nothing ; he ought certainly to 

 have demanded far more than he did ! 



The Professor admits Roumania has 

 made mistakes, but not those generally 

 attributed to her. In the first place, it 

 was a gross error to be so reasonable as 

 to demand nothing more than Silistria. 

 In diplomacy one never asks for pre- 

 cisely what one is prepared to accept. 

 The demand should have been made for 

 the entire quadrilateral. A second mis- 

 take of Roumania '5 is that she has al- 

 ways lived a little in the clouds. The 

 writer charges the civilised Roumanian 

 with knowing more about what is going 

 on in Paris and in London than about 

 what is taking place at home and in the 

 neighbouring countries. This attitude 

 should be changed at once. Before all 

 thing's, the Roumanian must take a live 

 interest in the affairs of his own coun- 

 try and in those of his near neigh- 

 bours. Further, it would be well if the 

 people of Roumania took a more in- 

 telligent interest in the foreign policy 

 of their country. Roumania cannot 

 abandon her claim to Dobrudja, and she 

 cannot forget her kinsmen in Mace- 

 donia. To renounce her ligitimate pre- 

 tensions would be to excite the con- 

 tempt of Europe, and if she is not to 

 trouble the peace of Europe full justice 

 must be done to her. 



