RUMANIA’S CAPITULATION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 283, 26 August 1944, Page 6

RUMANIA’S CAPITULATION

Though the announcement of Rumania’s capitulation has been momentarily overshadowed by the news from the west of Europe, its importance, both militarily and moral, is great. Overnight, as it were, the rot which has long been apparent in Hitler’s structure of Balkans collaboration has reached a vital spot, and a major collapse has occurred. This may not mean an immediate alteration of the actual military situation, for the Germans have a strong grip on Rumania. But the military prospects which lie ahead are immensely improved, for the way will be made easier for the Red Army,, which has surged deeply into the country against the combined weight, of German-Rumanian resistance, and will now receive some active assistance from part of the forces previously arrayed against it. The moral effect of the capitulation will be swift and far-reaching. Already it appears to have lent urgency to Bulgarian overtures for peace, and in Finland and Hungary it is bound to discourage still further the view that anything is to be gained, or saved, by continuing association with a Germany too immersed in her own deepening military plight to be any longer formidable in either threats or cajolery. In several respects the situation created by Rumania’s fall is curiously similar to that in Italy after her surrender. As was. and is, the case in Italy, the country is a battlefield for foreign armies, and the new pro-Allied Government will be able to exert authority only in territory from which the enemy has been forced to retreat. No doubt the Germans will endeavour to seize all authority in western and southern Rumania and disarm their former allies, just as they did in northern Italy. But this will mean an. immediate new task by way of garrisoning the country, and the likely threat, of widespread guerrilla action in the rear of lines that are straining desperately against the Russian advance. On top of this there is the urgent problem for the enemy of preserving his access to the Rumanian oilfields. This asset is of vital importance to Hitler, and. its preservation will demand military measures on a scale he can ill-afford to meet at the present crucial time. The paradoxical. fact is that the surrender of Rumania,, by spreading a state of hostility throughout that country, will temporarily extend the area of the European conflict. By lengthening the fronts on which Germany is fighting, it will hasten the day when she will be no longer able to ward off the retribution now looming close to her soil.