RUMANIA IN THE AXIS: A PERPLEXED COUNTRY

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23753, 26 September 1942, Page 4

RUMANIA IN THE AXIS: A PERPLEXED COUNTRY

UNWILLING ALLY

(By a Correspondent of "The Times. )

. r a hie news yesterday that General Antonescu'I. was an— a “ d lh s e up C rlSl SSHve powers to Rumania.

Fourteen Rumanian divisions are engaged on the Soviet front. At the end of June four of these divis *™? were being sacrificed on the graveyard of Sebastopol, and the remaining 10 stretched northwards to prel. An a curate figure of Rumanian losses is difficult to reach. the 140,000 dead and wounded before me attack on Sebastopol began but a Rumanian officer of the 14th Infantiy Division assured me in February that it was then 100,000 dead and 240 000 wounded and taken prisoner. The small force of Hurricanes and Blenheims acquired from the British had already been wiped out. In the obsolescent Polish aircraft uhich had fled in hundreds to Rumania during September and October, 1949, had had to be used as front-line machines. Great losses have been suffered among the French guns and Skoda equipment with which Rumania has been forced to fight owing to trouble with German deliveries. Whatever the correct figures may be, it is probably true to say that proportionately Rumania Has had greater casualties than any other European belligerent except Finland. What is her position to-day? ■ From responsible American and neutral diplomatists who have recently left Bucharest the details of an unhappy picture can be filled in. Rumanian political leaders are now themselves aware that their country, like Italy, cannot hope to win the war, whoever is victor. They feel ih^ m " selves betrayed alike by Carol, by Germany, and by Britain. There is reason to suppose that no one sees this more clearly than Marshal lon Antonescu, who in the days of peace was a welcome guest at the British Legation in Bucharest. Now he is almost in retirement while Michael (Mihai) Antonescu runs the country. Transylvania

thev can get their teeth. The recent declarations of Michael Antonescu himself have been pure Maniu. Manhj really does represent a Rumanian standpoint. Sociallv, also, there is great conflision. The persecution of Jews is said to have eased up. Ausnit has been released, and there are no more pog. roms. But this spring came the sign!, ficant "society purge,” when Princess Lucia Carageali, Prince lon Ghika, Nadea and Luisa Nicodem (nieces of the Patriarch), and 400 others were interned for “seditious talk in high places.” At least two propaganda ministers are reported to be still in gaol. In addition, there is the powerful new Frontul Patriotic, led by a former Communist, who has succeeded in stamping hundreds of thousands of 20 lei notes with the slogans: "Peace with Russia! Away with Antonescu and Hitler! We want Transylvania! Out with the Germans!” Rough Cross-Roads

Thus from the political, military.and social points of view Rumania find* herself at the most desperate cross, roads of her struggle for existence. Her hatreds are simple: she fears Russia, she loathes the Hungarians, she has learnt from first-hand experience to mistrust and dislike Germany. In 1939 and 1940 her army, her air force, her papers, and her people were predominantly pro-British. Carol, in trying to be too clever, fell between two hard stools and left the country in a bullet-riddled royal train. His son is a mere cipher. (His only, appearance, even in Bucharest recently, has been to watch his horse win the Derby.) Rumania is not alone in being our enemy against the will of the people. Without publicity, she hag sent 1000 waggons of wheat to Greece. The fact that they accompanied Ger. man oil trains was not of her own volition. The peasants and the people are on our side. Under Carol the country made tremendous mistakes; under the two Antonescus- it ■is still making them. The Rumanians inherited from their previous occupiers a tradition of political chicanery and corruption on a scale undreamt, of in Western Europe. But even these accusations do not make them pro-German. They are in, the extremely delicate position of being primarily anti-Magyar, then antiRussian and then anti-German. Mihai Antonescu has no option at the moment but to accede to German demands; but they are not all being granted with the lick-spittle alacrity; of a year ago. For example, the Germans recently demanded that Colonel Beck should be sent to the Reich, (He is in comfortable confinement at Brasov.) The Rumanians flatly refused —and increased the Rumanian guard round Beck’s house. They are now doing what they can to avoid the immense tentacles of the Hermann Goer-ing-Werke, which seized control of so much Rumanian industry 12 months ago. Luxury and Famine As in many countries, the rich art feeding well enough. Out at Pesca Run,' that pleasant restaurant by the lakt near Baneasa, you can order meat every day of the week, provided you are prepared to pay 1200 lei a head for your meal. But the poor get no bread at all two days of the week; even tomatoes are 300 lei a kilo, and now that the maize crop has failed the poor will have to suffer. In Bucharest there is little atmosphere of war. The flower girls are still in the Boulevarde Bratianu, and Argetoianu still lunches at the Millionaires’ Club. But behind the facade stirs that terrible uneasiness about the country’s future. Nothing can be hoped for from Germany, nothing but bloodshed front Hungary. Little is looked for from Russia and the one ray of hope ij tragically and desperately sought in Great Britain and America. The Rumanians are reduced to the thought that, since they will be in no position 1 to demand justice, they will be com* pelled to beg for leniency.

While 14 reluctant Rumanian divisions are fighting on the eastern front, a number of troops stay on the Transylvanian frontier. Hungary is just as determined to settle, eventually, tne Transylvanian problem with the bayonet as is Rumania. The sharp clash of June 18 at Turda, near Cluj, was only a symbol of the seething antagonism which far from decreasing still rolls and thunders in the background. If it is true that Kallay has finally been forced to supply 14 Hungarian divisions for the front line —as is reliably reported—no one will be more gratified than the Rumanian High Command. Up to a point Germany encourages Rumanian-Hungarian friction. That is why Ribbentrop told Horthy (before the latter’s disappearance from the scene) that Hungary would have to get Savoia-Marchettis because all the Messerschmitts had been promised to Rumania, and told Rumania she could have no aircraft because Hungary had been promised whatever could be spared. But from a military point of view both countries detest the idea of fighting in Russia, Libya, or Syria. The only opportunity'they pray for is to fight each other. The Hungarian army, which was reported to be anxious to march against Rumania in August, has the advantage only so long as its political leaders can fend off German military demands. Politically, Rumania is confused. The former Premier Maniu has a larger following than ever; and this following is nearly as anti-German as anti-Hun-garian. He still has all Rumanian Transylvania behind him, and remains, with his hatred of Hitler and the Axis, the most powerful political force in Rumania. At his side stand former Liberals like the Bratianus and Mihalache, and in reserve he has leaders of the Orthodox Church, like the Metropolitan Balan. He is apt to be ignored in England because he is old; but it would be a mistake to under-estimate the strength of his following. Rumanians, for long anti-Hungarian, and traditionally anti-German, find in his pamphlets and declarations something they understand, something into which