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Hungary was received with almost general indignation (cf. the writer's pamphlet: Les Roumains et le nouiiel itat de chases en Orient, Valenii-de-Munte, 1912). The necessity for a policy based on the existence of 13 million Rumanians, even though they inhabited three different countries, impressed public opin- ion more and more; and whatever may have been the Govern- ment's first intention, it began to realize its difficulties.

In the autumn the Bulgarian minister Danev, all-powerful at that moment, visited Rumania and offered to procure Bulga- rian renunciation for ever of all claims to the Dobrudja where, indeed, Bulgarians formed but a minority of the population and also the modification of the frontier by flattening salient angles to the advantage of Rumania. His proposals were not accepted. " Compensation " was demanded for the huge terri- torial gains realized by the neighbouring state; and a formidable agitation for this broke out all over the country. M. Take Jonescu, with whom after the Court of Cassation's verdict in fav- our of the Tramway Co. an alliance had been made in a new min- isterial grouping, with Maiorescu as president of Council, went to London to promote an arrangement, but was unsuccessful. The case was submitted to the Conference of St. Petersburg, which assigned Silistra to Rumania (April).

The mere delimitation of this territory raised many difficul- ties; and soon after the discussions between the Bulgarians and their allies, the question presented itself anew in different con- ditions. At that moment Carp, supported by Filipescu, was conducting a violent campaign against the Government, which had " lowered the dignity of Rumania," of which Silistra would even be " the tomb." The Government was called upon either to resign or to declare war on Bulgaria. Maiorescu obtained a parliamentary victory in the debate on the convention of St. Petersburg. But when the Serbians were treacherously at- tacked by the Bulgarians, and Bulgarian schemes for a Balkan hegemony became obvious, the idea of military intervention beyond the Danube had to be accepted. Russia, whose repre- sentative at Bucharest, Chehekov, manifested Rumanian sym- pathies, advised in that sense, Serbia just then enjoying the support of the Russian Cabinet. In June the Rumanian army. 500,000 strong, crossed the frontier, occupying on one side the Southern Dobrudja as far as Kavarna; and on the other side advancing in an irresistible rush upon Sofia by Vrasta and Orhanie. The exhausted Bulgarian soldiers deserted en masse. and the Rumanians sent them back to their homes.

As the Rumanian troops, commanded by the Crown Prince, drew near the Bulgarian capital, the Tsar Ferdinand despatched a telegram to King Charles asking for peace. Negotiations were Immediately begun at Bucharest between Rumanians, Serbians, Greeks and Bulgarians. Peace was concluded in August: as regards Rumania, she obtained the territory which she had already occupied in the Dqbrudja; and, furthermore, her rights of protection over the Rumanians in Macedonia were recognized.

Question of Rumanians in Macedonia. In that region, isolated from the national soil, all through the Middle Ages sturdy local Rumanian communities had persisted, with forms of autonomy respected by the Turkish Government. Besides the shepherds, whose flocks covered the plateaux of the Pindus (see Wace and Thomson, The Nomads of the Balkans, London, 1913), there was an industrious urban population of arti 'ans and traders, who spread, moreover, into towns in other parts of the Balkan peninsula. Later the activity of these " Koutzovlaks " turned towards Austria, and their colonies advanced from Budapest, Vienna, and Trieste to London and even to Philadelphia. Meeting with the Rumanian intellectuals of Hungary they initi- ated a new national programme, and in 1830 revived the ancient relations with Bucharest. The Rumania of Charles I. not only welcomed them as brothers, but created, chiefly through the wise agency of their leader, the Apostal Margarit, a complete system of Rumanian education in Macedonia, including a lycee, at Monastir, and a commercial school at Salonika. The Porte was persuaded to differentiate the Rumanian communities of that region from the Greeks of the patriarchal organization, and from the Bulgarians of the Exarchy residing at Constantinople.

There lacked but one element, absolutely essential (granted the local conditions), namely the national bishop. He had been promised to the Rumanian faithful by the Treaty of Bucharest; but the clause had never been applied, as much through the Rumanian Government's own negligence as through the ill-will of the new Serbian and Greek masters of the situation.

Germany hailed Rumania's success as a means of retrieving through her ally that influence which the defeat of her proteges the Turks had caused her to lose in the East. As to Austria- Hungary, the imperial and royal minister at Bucharest, Prince Fiirstenberg, presented a note from Count Berchtold in which the recently concluded treaty was referred to as a simple " pre- liminary arrangement." This conception was energetically rejected, and the scheme for a European congress to arrange Oriental affairs " definitely " was wrecked. But it did not prevent the Tsar Ferdinand from issuing to his army an order of the day in which, speaking of " spoliation," he indicated " better days of glory " as yet to come.

Rumania during the World War. The World War was now brewing. In the month of June 1914, under the form of a pil- grimage to universities, Turkish intellectuals came to Rumania to make soundings with a view to reconcilation with Bulgaria. One month later Austria-Hungary declared war with Serbia, on th; pretext of avenging the murder of the Crown Prince and his wife at Serajevo by a Serbian. The treaty with the Triple Alliance had only just been confirmed by the minister Maiorescu. His successor, the head of the Liberal party, who had come to power with a long programme of reforms foremost among them an agrarian law based on the expro- priation of the large landowners, and an electoral law estab- lishing universal suffrage with the exclusion of illiterates had never shown any intention of abandoning the foreign policy identified with King Charles' views and sympathies. Vienna felt assured that the Rumanian army, long prepared to that end, would march at her orders. The King's interview with the Tsar of Russia at Constantza. though it had caused a profound sensation in the country, raising hopes of a change of orientation, had produced no diplomatic results.

Public opinion was violently hostile to the Austrian adventure. During the Bulgarian campaign the soldiers had clamoured to be led to Transylvania; the King himself had witnessed their manifestations. In face of Italy's disclaimer of her obligations under the treaty, and England's declaration of war against the Central Powers, Charles I. and his advisers were forced to adopt the compromise of an armed neutrality, which the king hoped to break on the first opportunity.

When the German march on Paris failed, Rumanian politi- cians had to reconsider their position. M. Take Jonescu passed from the first idea of " loyal neutrality " to that of intervention on the side of the Allies, and in this he was supported especially by the combative energy of Filipescu. The latter did not shrink from dividing his own party, opposing Marghiloman, whose traditional Junimism favoured the Central Powers; and joining hands with his former rival, he effected a fusion with Take Jonescu. Meanwhile, popular demonstrations continued against Austria-Hungary and Germany, who by means of con- ventions were exploiting Rumania to feed the population of the German Empire, and whose subventioned Rumanian press was generally despised, despite the assistance given it by Carp and a few of his personal friends. At the " Lemberg moment " (the invasion of Galicia by the Russians), Filipescu had vehe- mently demanded rupture with Austria-Hungary.

In Sept. J. J. Bratianu succeeded in obtaining a declaration from the Allies (including the much-feared Russia) that in exchange for a benevolent neutrality Rumania should have the right to occupy those Austro-Hungarian territories which be- longed to her by virtue of nationality. The sudden death on Oct. 10 of King Charles, to the last irreconcilable to a change of policy, facilitated the task of those who desired it. The suffer- ings of the Rumanians of Transylvania, induced to serve in the army of the Emperor-King by the lie that Rumania herself had embraced the same cause, and that her soldiers were fighting in