John Bull, symbol of Great Britain and here a bird-catcher, tries to entice the kingdom of Romania, in 1915 a neutral nation, into his trap. He already has Russia by the nose, and the plucked cock of France and an Italian fowl close at hand. Neutral (and wise) Greece rests out of reach, while Bulgaria sings to the Islamic crescent moon of Turkey. In the background Turkish, German, and Austro-Hungarian soldiers meet at a crossroads. Carved into the tree is a heart dated 1915, and the initials 'F A R', perhaps for 'France aime Russie:' France loves Russia.
L'OiseleurDer Vogelfänger 1915The BirdcatcherGreceBulgarieRoumanieBagdad / HambourgRussie
"The Russian Galicia army has now reached out to Kolomea, fifty kilometres south of the Dniester; its north-westerly sweep is becoming more marked as it advances on Stanislau.During the month of June it has made 217,000 prisoners, including 4,500 officers; it has also captured two hundred and thirty guns and seven hundred machine-guns.General Alexeïev has just sent a note to General Joffre pointing out the desirablility at the present moment of the Salonica army taking the offensive against the Bulgars: he thinks this offensive would undoubtedly compel Rumania once and for all to throw in her lot with the Entente. . . ."
Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia, writing on June 29, 1916 on the success of Russia's Brusilov Offensive, begun June 4, 1916, into Galicia in Austria-Hungary's northeast, one of the most successful of the war. Both the Triple Entente and the Central Powers had encouraged Romania to join the war. As Romania's chief ambition was to seize the Austro-Hungarian territory of Transylvania with its large ethnically-Romanian population, the Entente was the more obvious partner, and Brusilov's success made the timing opportune, but Romania would continue to dawdle until the Russians had been stopped and the Central Powers could turn their full attention on Romania. The French and British had landed troops in Salonica, Greece, in 1915, in hopes of preventing the overrunning of Serbia. They had failed in their mission, but had over 300,000 troops in Greece, joined by Serbian and Russian troops. General Mikhail Vasiliyevich Alekseyev was Chief of Staff of Stavka, the Russian High Command, from 1915 to 1917.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 286, publisher: George H. Doran Company
1916-06-29, 1916, June, Brusilov Offensive, Galicia, Alexiyev, Joffre, Romania, Rumania, bird-catcher
