W.W.1 (5)

About this time, the Russians had been forced to retreat to a line
running south from Riga, on the Baltic Sea, to the northern boundary
of Roumania. The French and English had been pounding at the
Dardanelles for some months, but the stubborn resistance of the Turks
seemed likely to hold them out of Constantinople for a long time to
come. The checked Italians had not been able to make much headway
against the Austrians through the mountainous Alpine country where the
fighting was taking place. In the west, the Germans were holding
firmly against the attacks of the British and French. The czar of
Bulgaria and his ministers, thinking that the German-Austrian-Turkish
alliance could win with their help, flung their nation into its third
war within four years. This happened in Octoher, 1915.

Now at the close of the second Balkan war, when Serbia and Greece
defeated Bulgaria, they made an alliance, by which each agreed to come
to the help of the other in case either was attacked by Bulgaria.
Roumania, too, was friendly to Greece and Serbia, rather than to
treaty Bulgaria, for the Roumanians knew that Bulgaria was very
anxious to get back the territory of which Roumania had robbed her, in
the second Balkan war. In this way, the Quadruple Entente (Russia,
Italy, France, and England) hoped that the entry of Bulgaria into the
war, on the side of Germany and Turkey, would bring Greece and
Roumania in on the other side.

The Greek people were ready to rush to Serbia's aid and so was the
Greek prime minister. The queen of Greece, however, is a sister of the
German emperor, and through her influence with her husband she was
able to defeat the plans of Venizelos (ven i zel'os), the prime
minister, who was notified by the king that Greece would not enter
the war. Venizelos accordingly resigned, but not until he had given
permission to the French and English to land troops at Salonika, for
the purpose of rushing to the help of Serbia. (Greece also was afraid
that German and Austrian armies might lay waste her territory, as they
had Serbia's, before England and France could come to the rescue.)

Meanwhile poor Serbia was in a desperate state. The two Balkan wars
had drained her of some of her best soldiers. Twice the Austrians had
invaded her kingdom in this war, and twice they had been driven out.
Then came a dreadful epidemic of typhus fever which was the result of
unhealthful conditions caused by the war. Now the little kingdom,
attacked by the Germans and Austrians on two sides and by the
Bulgarians on a third, was literally fighting with her back to the
wall. She had counted on Greece to stand by her promise to help in
case of an attack from Bulgaria, but we have seen how the German queen
of Greece had been able to prevent this. Serbia hoped that Roumania,
too, would come to her help. However, as you have been told, the king
of Roumania is a German of the Hohenzollern family, a cousin of the
emperor, and in spite of the sympathy of his people for Italy, France,
and Serbia, he was able to keep them from joining in the defense of
the Serbs.


Now Roumania ought to include a great part of Bessarabia (bes a
ra'bi a), which is the nearest county of Russia, and also the
greater part of Transylvania and Bukowina (boo ko v?'na), which are
the provinces of Austria-Hungary that lie nearest; for a great part of
the inhabitants of these three counties are Roumanians by blood and
language. They would like to be parts of the kingdom of Roumania, and
Roumania would like to possess them. The Quadruple Entente would
promise Roumania parts of Transylvania and Bukowina in case she joined
the war on their side, while the Triple Alliance was ready to promise
her Bessarabia. Roumania, as was said before, was originally settled
by colonists sent out from Rome, and in the eleventh century a large

number of people from the north of Italy settled there. On this
account, Roumania looks upon Italy as her mother country, and it was
thought that Italy's attack upon Austria would influence her to
support the Entente.

Each country wanted to be a friend of the winning side, in order to
share in the spoils. In this way, whenever it looked as if the
Quadruple Entente did not need her help Roumania was eager to offer
it, at a price which seemed to the allies too high. When, however, the
tide turned the other way, she lost her enthusiasm for the cause of
her friends, fearing what the central empires might do to her.