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Show RUMANIA'S RECOVERY. The victories of the Russians and Rumanians in Dobrudja province will go far to restore the balauce which was rudely overturned when General von Mackensen, with his Germans, Bulgarians Bul-garians and Turks, swept across the Const anza-Tcherua,voda railway and pressed on to the north. A little more and he would have expelled his enemies ene-mies from Dobrudja and crossed the Danube at points whore ho could have driven through central Rumania toward the Austro-German troops advancing advanc-ing from Transylvania. This double wedgo would have cut the Russo-Ru-manian lines in two and would have isolated iso-lated the Rumanian armies in more than half of Rumania. Cut off from sources of supply they must have succumbed quickly to the Teutonic forces. Russia has given effective aid to Ru-manC, Ru-manC, but the aid is belated. When Rumania declared war, the Russians, nn- I derostimating the needs of their ally, had placed an insufficient number of guns and men on the Dobrudja front. Then came the Rumanian reverses at Turtukai and Silistria, which fatally weakened the Dobrudja forces. From these reverses the Rumanians did not recover, and when the enemy forced them back in Transylvania and began an invasion of Rumania from that front they were compelled further to weaken the Dobrudja armies in order to strengthen the forces operating toward Transylvania. The only hope to escape complete disaster rested in Russia and tho czar responded as best he could. An eminent strategist and practical fighting fight-ing man, General Sakharoff, was sent into Dobrudja with heavy reinforcements reinforce-ments and large supplies of ammunition. He took command of the Russo-Ru-manian armies when they had been driven driv-en to a point about fifty -five miles north of the Constanza railroad. Without waiting long he began an offensive of-fensive and caught the advance forces of Mackensen unprepared. The German Ger-man commander had pushed on to the north without supplying himself thoroughly. thor-oughly. In fact, it was impossible for him to get forward adequate supplies in a country without railways. Consequently Conse-quently he was compelled to give way as soon as Sakharoff took the field in forco. Mackensen has not been defeated, defeat-ed, but he cannot maintain a force so far north of Constanza sufficient to cope with the enemy. He has given up Hirsova, forty miles north of the Con-stanza Con-stanza railroad and has fallen back some miles toward that road. This will shorten his lines of communication and give him a chance to bring up guns and supplies. Unless General Sakharoff wins a brilliant victory it is to be expected ex-pected that Mackensen, aftor retreating retreat-ing fifteen or twenty miles, will establish es-tablish a line which he can hold until he is once more able to assume the offensive. |
