UNEASY BALKANS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21354, 15 March 1944, Page 3

UNEASY BALKANS

DESIRE FOR PEACE RUMANIANOVERTURES

IN A BARGAINING MOOD (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Noon.) LONDON, March 14. As the Russian armies roll on towards Rumania panic is reported to be sweeping Hitler’s Balkan satellites. The latest developments are:— 1. The reported Rumanian offer to “sell put” by returning the border provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina to Russia if the Russians will help them to recover Transylvania from Hungary. 2. The recall of all Bulgarian diplo'mats for urgent consultation in Sofia as a follow-up to the peace feelers put out to Britain and America recently. The tension on the Transylvanian border between Hungary and Rumania is growing every day, with frontier incidents mounting. Reports from Turkey say that probably 100,000 troops are massed on either side. Hungary’s feudal and despotic Government, like .its counterpart in Rumania, is finding increasing difficulty in keeping its own people under control. Strikes have broken out in both countries—the dockers and seamen have brought the Rumanian Black Sea ports to a standstill and strikes occur daily in Budapest. The Daily Mail’s Ankara correspondent reports that the Rumanian diplomats in Turkey say that not only has their country nothing left to fight for, but that for the first time, a basis for a real peace has been laid. ' The Press Association’s diplomatic correspondent says Prince Stirbey was unquestionably the bearer of the many peace feelers which have poured out of Rumania in the last few weeks. It is important to note that Prince Stirbey is not a member of General Antonescu’s Government. His journey to Cairo must therefore be regarded as unofficial. There is no question about the desire of the vast majority of the Rumanians to‘get out of the war. The barrier is the powerful German hold over the country. This hold is probably stronger in Rumania than in any other Balkan state, owing to the existence of the oilfields, which Hitler is likely to take desperate measures to retain. The Istanbul correspondnet of the Daily Telegraph says the Rumanian generals are said to have’hastily convened a meeting at which they decided to ask General Antonescu to order the immediate withdrawal of all Rumanian troops from the Russian front and to prepare to defend the homeland. The generals urged the setting up of a defence zone along the line of the River Pruth to cover the Rumanian oilfields. Although General Antonescu has forbidden evacuations, it is reported that many inhabitants of Bessarabia, the province nearest to the Russian advance, are ilready in flight.