HIGHLIGHTS from THE CABLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1940, Page 7

HIGHLIGHTS from THE CABLES

LOW COUNTRIES BREATHE MORE EASILY.

ONCE aj-tin the Nazi hordes across the frontiers of Belgium and Holland have held their hand, and the people of the Low Countries are breathing more easily. However, they are taking no chances, and according to the Belgian Defence Minister, General Denis, mobilisation will be maintained for some time. The scare of the last few days has brought forth some interesting developments that were absent from the crisis last November. Most important of all were the statement of a French Foreign Office official that, in the event of attack on Belgium, Britain and France would come to her support at once, and the remarks of the C'om-mander-in-Chief of the British Forces in France, Lord Gort, V.C., reinforcing it. If they have found out nothing else during this latest campaign of nerves the Nazis at least know what to expect if they try to advance. "PLAYBOY OF BALKANS" IN THE completion of King Carol's defence line along the borders of Rumania is further proof —if proof were needed now—of the seriousness with which the former "playboy of the Balkans'' is taking the task of keeping his wealthy little monarchy safe from the clutching hands of greedy neighbours. First coming into the limelight at a time when it was said that Rumania was "neither a State nor a nation, but a profession," head-strong, independent-minded Carol seemed to live out that epigram to the letter. His refusal to act as a pawn In the chess game of international diplomacy as played by his scheming mother Marie caused a lot of bother in the earlv stages of his public life. He married the wrong woman, renounced his rights to the throne. This marriage annulled, his family forced him into union with Princess Helen of Greece. Then he met a voluptuous young half-Jewish woman named Magda Lupescu. He fell for "Bibi," as he called the titian-liaired Magda, and for 16 years, on the throne and off, he was to stay with her. He ran away with her in 1925 and renounced the throne, to return five years later to his homeland, to send his people wild with joy. There was a settlement with the Princess Hejen, who had born

Noticeably absent from Lord Gort's remarks was any mention of the Netherlands, but it isdifficult to see how any move there could fail to involve Belgium and, in turn, the Allies. The French Foreign Official said the Allies would come to the aid of any neutral attacked, and this was no doubt to warn the Nazis that it was all one whether they moved through Belgium or Holland. General Denis says he is well satisfied with the way the Belgian mobilisation was carried out, and from the Army's point of view the recent upset has been invaluable. Each time the Nazis raise a first-class scare they make their opponents more watchful and better prepared, and if they decide to march into the Low Countries in the end the losses tluy will uncoubtedly sustain will be very largely attributable to the time and practice the Belgians have had in preparing a welcome. SERIOUS MOOD. a son named Miliai. Madame Lupescu became his adviser, and her power waxed to what was, to the general public, an alarming extent. As time went on, however, Rumania flourished. Then world depression cracked down on easy money —and then came Hitler. The Fuehrer's advent seemed to toughen the fibre of the monarch. Lupescu retired into her villa, Carol took over dictatorial powers and formed a one-party State. Pablic works programmes were carried out, the army was tidied up, and corruption was stamped out. To be a Rumanian is no longer just a profession. Like most of the Balkan peoples, Carol is strong for his comparatively new-found independence. The overlordsliip of the Czars is a nightmarish memory. Hitler and Stalin are just two more potential overlords to the Rumanians, and, as never before, they cherish their nationalism and independence. When, last August, Carol declared: "Our frontiers, traced in blood, cannot be altered without a world cataclysm," he got a resounding "amen" from his people. Times are too serious now for comic opera, and to-day's news seems to indicate that Carol, the ruler of 20,000,000 people whose 113,884 square miles are rich in oil and cereals, was in deadly «arnest when he made that statement.