The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1940. RIVER OF DESTINY.

Evening Star, Issue 23726, 6 November 1940, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1940. RIVER OF DESTINY.

It war reported from Moscow a few days ago that following Russo-German negotiations it had been decided at a conference to liquidate the International and European Danube commissions that existed and create another one comprising the States directly interested in this great waterway. The object, it was explained, was to regulate the operation of shipping facilities. Later it was announced that there had been a, hitch in the conference proceedings. (Russia had a grievance, alleging that the regime established by Germany on the Upper Danube placed the entire control of the river in German hands. There seems to he no doubt on this point. Hitler has removed all international control and made himself absolute master of thus great river, which is a vital moans of communication between the different countries through which it threads its lengthy way. The European commission that was set up in 1856 to control the mouth of the Danube has been discarded and the same fate has befallen the International Danube Commission, which was created under the Treaty of Versailles and provided that the States bordering on the Danube and using it should control the river. Great Britain and France were represented on •this commission. Hitler formed a new organisation for Danube control, under the administration of a Nazi director. If this official so desires he may consult representatives of Hungary, Bulgaria. Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Slovakia, but his decisions are arbitrary and final.

There are ample reasons for irritation among other countries over this development. The small States of Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia are unable to make any effective protest in the meantime. They are overawed by the present Nazi ascendancy, but the position is different with Russia and Italy. The Soviet’s shadow now stretches to the Danube, and Mussolini hopes to share in the riches ol the river. Thus, as has been said, on the banks of the Danube three great races of the Old World—Germanic, Slav, and Latin—have a meeting ground. They have rival ambitions on many points, and whatever community of interest they possess is only of a fleeting nature. The countries on the Danube’s- banks are described as a strange mixture of racial types, anil jostling on almost any Dauubian jetty and in Dauubian villages, living side by side. may be found ■ Hungarians, Albanians, Turks, Greeks, Gipsies, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Croats, Montenegrins, Jews, Serbs. Rumanians, Ukrainians, Russians, and a dozen other types, Their religions are as diverse as their racial origins. It is Hitler’s aim to bring them all and the nations to which they belong under the Nazi heel.

AH this is another illustration of the absurdity of the Nazi leader’s grandiose plans, which include the subjugation of France and the smaller States of Western Europe. It is easy to understand Germany’s desire to control the Danube area. In its valley are the richest wheatfields in Europe and Europe's most prolific oil wells. The mountains skirting the great waterway have coal and other rich mineral deposits, and Britain's sea blockade of the Axis Rowers has added great transport significance to the river, which is the natural summer trade route of half Europe—virtually Hitler’s “ lifeline.” The aim is to keep the Danube basin completely under German control, and that means the systematic exploitation of the people within the area. This is in accord with the “ new order ” envisaged by Hitler, which in the words of a British Minister is based ou monstrous evil and tyranny and means the deliberate and perpetual impoverishment of millions of men.