of the Bukowina paved the way for
Rumania, should she decide on intervention. The road was clear for
her to step in and occupy the Bukowina (which Russia was prepared
to hand over), and probably Transylvania as well, which latter
the proximity of a Russian force might--at the time--have enabled
her to do. But the bait failed, no doubt for weighty reasons. Even
if Rumania had favored the Triple Entente, which there is strong
ground to presume she would, by entering the war, have found herself
in as perilous a position as Serbia, with her Black Sea littoral
exposed to hostile Turkey and her whole southern boundary flanked by
a neighbor--Bulgaria--whose intentions were as yet unknown. However,
on January 27, 1915, the Bank of England arranged a $25,000,000 loan
to Rumania--an event which further heightened the probability of
her entry into the arena.

We may safely take it for granted that these considerations were
not overlooked by the German staff, in addition to the patent fact
that the Russians were persistently gaining ground against the
Austrians. German officers and men were therefore rushed from the
eastern and western fronts to the south of the Carpathians to form
the three armies we have labeled A, B, and C. The points of attack
for which they were intended have already been stated; but the
roundabout manner in which they traveled to their respective sections
is both interesting and worthy of notice. At this stage a new spirit
seemed to dominate Austro-Hungarian military affairs; we suddenly
encounter greater precision, sounder strategy, and deeper plans: a
master mind appears to have taken matters in hand. It is the cool,
calculating, mathematical composite brain of the German General
Staff. As the formation and dispatching of three great armies can
hardly be kept a secret, especially where hawk-eyed spies abound,
a really astute piece of stage management was resorted to. Wild
rumors were set afloat to the effect that the Austrian Government had
decided to undertake a great offensive--for the third time--against
Serbia, and erase her from the map, with the assistance of four
German army corps. The concentration one for operations against
either Serbia or the Russian front in the Carpathians was naturally
in the central plains of Hungary. But to cover the real object
of Austro-German concentration active demonstrations were made
on the Serb border in the form of bombardments of Belgrade, and
occupation of Danub