IRON GUiARD ACTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 156, 30 December 1940, Page 7

IRON GUiARD ACTION

NAZI TROOPS IN RUMANIA

LONDON, December 29

Reports from Budapest tonight say that considea-able nervousness and tension have been caused in the Hungarian capital by a meeting of 5000 armed Iron Guards at a Rumanian town near; the new Hungarian border. At this meeting the Iron Guards openly* denounced the Vienna award, under which Rumania was compelled by the Axis Powers to hand over a large part of Transylvania to Hungary, and passed a resolution declaring guerrilla warfare against Hungary until Transylvania is fully restored to Rumania. Arms were distributed to the legionaries without interference by the authorities. The meeting was attfended by a special delegation from, the central committee of the Iron Guards sent specially from Bucharest with the approval of Horea Sima, the^ Iron Guard leader.

This news is yet another sign of the growing unrest in south-eastern Europe. For example, pamphlets condemning Nazi aggression and declaring faith in the invincibility of <the democracies have been distributed in the streets of Rumania. After referring to the recent frontier adjustments, the pamphlets go on to express a: burning faith in the Allied cause and the conviction that only a British victory can free the oppressed peoples of Europe. The unrest in Rumania may explain why more German troops are said to have been sent to Rumania in the last few days. It is thought that Germany may have found it expedient (to increase her garrison in Rumania as a precautionary measure rather than through a desire to embark on a new and rash adventure elsewhere. Thus is certainly the view put forward by a semi-official Yugoslav newspaper, which says that the unsettled position of the new regime in Rumania is sufficient reason for Germany to safeguard the political developments of the country. This explanation may account for the drastic cuts made in the Rumanian railway services similar to those of a few days ago in Hungary.

The Germans may well need all the trains they can get to send troops into| Rumania. Other suggestions have beenlj made, of course, to explain the curtail-] ment of railway traffic, as well as the rather convenient official explanation, about the weather. It has been suggested that the railways may be needed to carry oil from Rumania to Germany and Italy, as the other alternative route, the Danube, is now frozen over. In any case, the disorganisation which these restrictions are bound to bring in Rumania is not likely to add to the popularity of German methods.

There are clear signs of a revival of national feeling in Rumania and this is recognised not only by Germany but by Hungary, which has become uneasy lest frontier incidents and unrest caused by the Iron Guard should result in German orders to hand back Transylvania to Rumania.