NEW EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 206, 30 August 1940, Page 6

NEW EUROPE.

RUMANIA'S CRISIS. u READJUSTMENTS." HATREDS AND AXIS' ORDERS. {By WALTER DUBAXTY.) BUCHAREST, August L "In ev new Europe frontier* and national rivalries will matter little; tariffs and other restrictions to trade will be abolished." That, I learn on good authority, was the substance of Chancellor Hitler's demands made !**•: week to Premier lon Gigurtu and Foreign Minis trr Mihail Manoilescu, of Rumania. In the light of that statement Manoilescu'- sjieech can be seen in its true i*rspeotive. (In dispatches from Rumania yesterday the Rumanian Foreign Minister, making hi* Government's first concrete proposal to Hungary and Bulgaria, was reported as ex&pre±iing satisfaction about the Axis' leaders' understaiUing of Rumania's present situation, and saying. "Tie liberty to decide our own fate rests entirely in our own hands.*') The less of Bessarabia caused something like a "major crisis*" in tlxis country, and not only the Government, hut the regime itself, were subjected to attacks that were nonetheless real because they found no expression in newspapers, radio'or public speeches. Critics belonging to diver* political groups have seized upon the HungaroRumanian problem to embarrass the Government further bv suggest ins tiiat this country will be called upon to" make more territorial sacrifices in Transylvania, where patriotic sentiment runs. high, and where it i* no coincidence tiiat the lonner Peasant party —at present not represented in the Government—is strongest. Agrteawt by September IS? Masoilescu's speech was designed to answer these critics and allay popular anxiety. It stressed the exchange of populations as a welcome alternative to territorial "readjustments." For good measure, the Foreign Minister declared. as a sign of the desirability of rational unity, "Rumania for the Rumanians."* The speech also put the Jews in their old and bitter role of European ecapegoats, to pay when things go wrong If critics at home can be silenced the Government ha* less to fear from foreign complication* than Hungary's noisy claims for a*t least half of Transylvania might indicate. I understand that negotiation* will begin soon at Arad, and if no agreement is reached by September 15 th* Axis Powers will then announce their OWE settlement, which Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria already have agreed to accept. This settlement would involve not only those three State*. bus Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Hungary might get a little more ©f Transylvania than an exchange of population* would bring, but it would also have to give a rich grain area to Slovakia and perhaps some other territory to Germany. A* compensation Rumania would receive part of the Banat, now held by Yugoslavia. In anv ease, whether negotiations proceed or I°£ **•£ ***** wia Bot ** allowed to fight. Balkan tempers are quick and old hatreds are savage, but it hardly seem* likely that the Axis' orders can Oβ defied. There remain* Russia, however— Russia, which of course * not pleased by having no participation in these arrangements. But the entire question °' Ru »°-G«rnian relations is overshadowed by the German attack on England and its success or failure. On"v it mere is no attack at all mi-hi theti relations become acute. For "the time being they are centred on hope, although both eides are watchful and not neglecting their military and political fences. Romanian Endurance. Meanwhile there continues the economic process of preparing Rumania to fit itself into the new totalitarian Europe. I refer in this instance to the action against the Astra Romana (Anglo-Dutch) petroleum company here. The Englisn oil companies and all English businesses are doomed here a< tbev were doomed in the rest of Europe*. And Rumania w ~oing to take advanta-e of the present situation to re-e*tabli4 its rights or property over its own lubsoiL American oil interests in Ruman'a have not more than 10 or 12 per cent of the total productive value, but th»T days, too, are numbered. Thev will sot be expropriated or -"nationalised" in an arbitrary manner. In fact, as I said before, the Anglo-Dutch Astra Roman* s only -controlled/' but sooner or lat« the Rumania* will inform the American oil companies that tbev will be paid wK * re n, ; lm ** T in k ~p4 m . th * new order in Earope*' aS exercised by Germany and its Rumanian satellite*. As matters «and to-dav Germenv ism-by which I mean d«pair and chao* any part of Europe. Rumania has been driven hard by recent circumstances, and any additional may have grave results. P^seure .n^? 1 *? P must ** consistent tency-I mean if Rumania is called upon to make sacrifices to Hungarf and Bulgaria, or both, which will trv her yOad will have made it* most serious politiej error since Chancellor Hitler took the reins oi power.—(X.A.X.A-)