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Updated: July 19, 2025
As the King did not begin the conversation I had to do so, and said that I had not come to sue for peace but purely as the bearer of a message from the Emperor Charles, who, in spite of Roumania's treachery, would show indulgence and consideration if King Ferdinand would at once conclude peace under the conditions mutually agreed on by the Quadruple Alliance Powers.
In truth, Roumania's attitude, of which at various times conflicting accounts have been given, appears to be what one might reasonably expect, considering the sympathies of the nation, the interests of the State, and the requirements of the conjuncture.
M. Bratiano's appropriate attitude may be described as statuesque. Occasionally his Press organs commented upon the manifestations of the interventionists in words barbed with bitter sarcasm and utilitarian maxims. "Roumania's blood and money," the Independence Roumaine explained, "must be spent only in the furtherance of Roumania's interest."
The invading troops swept on, crossed the Sereth river, and soon gained control of about one-half of Roumania's western frontier. By July the Austrians were retreating into the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, hotly pressed by the Russian advance.
In order to render the situation quite clear, it must here be explained that during the time immediately preceding Roumania's entry into war there were really only two parties in the country: the one was hostile to us and wished for an immediate declaration of war, and the other was the "friendly" one that did not consider the situation ripe for action and advised waiting until we were weakened still more.
France exported thither goods valued at no more than 35,273,000 francs. Owing to Roumania's grievances against Russia whose seizure of Bessarabia nearly forty years ago left a wound which festered for years and has only recently been cicatrized King Carol concluded a military convention with the Austro-Hungarian empire, the stipulations of which have never been authoritatively disclosed.
Roumania's experience in 1877, under M. Bratiano's father, when, after having helped Russia to defeat the Turks, she was deprived of Bessarabia and obliged to content herself with the Dobrudja, was the main motive for this striving after definite conditions, while her readiness to look upon that loss of Bessarabia as final moved her to demand every rood of Austro-Hungarian territory which was inhabited by her kinsmen or had belonged to them in bygone days.
The idea was, generally speaking, well received by Roumania, and the prevalent opinion was that such an alliance would be distinctly advisable from Roumania's point of view.
Individual German firms and the Government worked hand in hand; diplomacy, trade and commerce moved steadily towards the same goal, and attained it. Roumania's annual imports from Austria-Hungary, according to the latest available statistics, were valued at 136,906,000 francs; from Germany at 183,713,000; and from Great Britain at only 85,470,000 francs.
For a while Von Mackesen was on the defensive, but in a counter-attack on September 23 he gained a marked victory over the Roumanians. Gradually the latter were forced to retire, and although they made a desperate resistance to the forces under Von Mackensen the latter reached the coast by October 21, advancing on Constanza, Roumania's chief port on the Black Sea, which was captured October 23.
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