RUSTIC RUMANIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 267, 9 October 1940, Page 6

RUSTIC RUMANIA

UNDER NAZI HEEL.

THE PLIGHT OF PLENTY

Rumania falls within the category of that growing number of States whoso very prosperity and bountiful supply of natural resources prove, under the present technique of waging war, a greater burden than a blessing. Indeed, were this 6trate'gically-impqrtant country not so richly endowed it is doubtful if she would have achieved the attention that has been so greatly; lavished upon her, even if cognisance is taken of the important place she occupies in the geography of Europe. Her fortune is her downfall. Though the inheriter of ancient traditions. tho Kingdom of Rumania —if such it can still be regarded since General Antonescu last month set up a virtual dictatorship with King Michael as puppet ruler—is a comparatively recent creation and was doubled in size a 6 a result of the Great War. Its post-war political history has been particularly stormy, and it seems destined to be taken up in the fortex of vet another great conflict. Like its neighhours, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia (the latter the remnant of the postwar unified Czechoslovakia) it is not a geographical unit, but rather the concrete expression of political and national formula.

The Great Rumania is the country of the reunited Rumanian people, a collection under, one head of small States inhabited by the descendants of the ancient Dacians, “an oasis of Latins in a desert of Slavs and Magyars.” During many centuries of oppression these'people spread over a large area, forming self-contained colonies in other lands beyond the borders of the original principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. It was not till the end of the Great War, in which Rumania was to all intents defeated after a desperate struggle against overwhelming odds, that these colonies were reunited to the mother country, forming a territory of 122,282 square miles as compared with 53,439 before 1914.

LAND OF FRONTIERS,

A glance at the map of Europe shows how greatly Rumania is circumscribed. She is, in effect, a land of frontiers. On the north, are the former Czechoslovakia and Poland—now both highways for the German armies—also Russia ; on the east is the Black Sea. possession of the of which in the vicinity of the Bosphorus would ' place Turkey and the Allies in an even more difficult position; and on the west are Yugoslavia and Hungary. The latter is to all intents a German sphere of influence, and strategists foresee how Yugoslavia might be made an avenue of approach to the “back door” of Egypt by way of the Adriatic, lonian Sea, and the Mediterranean. Like a piece in a gigantic jigsaw puzzle Rumania is olaced in their midst.

It is impossible to speak of a typical Rumanian landscape, for the term would include anything from a desert or a rolling plain of wheat to a scene of wild mountains and deep pine forests. Of the rivers only the Danube and the Dniester, the latter half Russian, are of first-rate importance. Tho vast fertile plains of the Dobruja (recently the subject of Bulgarian claims), Wallachia. and Oltenia are great wheat and maize areas; the mountains of Moldavia, Transylvania (recently returned to Hungary), and Bukovina are rich in timber, while the greet chain of lakes along the Black Sea coast and the rivers teem with fish. THE OIL BOGEY.

But if agriculture is Rumania’s chief industry, the production of petroleum is her next. There' are two main oil districts —Campina-Ploe6ti, on the southern slopes of the Transylvanian Alps, and Baeau, in the Carpathians. The industry ig mostly in the hands of semi-Russian companies, such as the Astra and Steaua Homana, branches of the great international oil trusts. Many of the engineers are Englishmen who spend their lives as exiles on these foreign fields. Incidentally, these are the men whom Rumania (doubtless with German prompting) declares intend to sabotage the industry—such, at least, is the flimsy pretext upon which Germany has acted in sending her troops into the country.

It may be recalled that during the Great "War many of the wells were destroyed to prevent them falling into enemy hands, and in 1918 only half the original plant was intact. Reconstruction was gradually carried out by means of foreign capital, and exports steadily increased. A great proportion of oil has been carried by pipeline to Constantza, on the Black Sea, whence it has been carried all over the world. When the war situation became more acute Germany, last December, forced a new agreement upon the Rumanians giving her the right to one-third of the exportable surplus—and let it bo noted nearly a half of the total supply has been derived from wells of companies owned by Britain and France! It is a situation which prompts the thought of whether these companies must not have since been inclined to take strong steps to protect their interests or at least prevent the Nazis securing their requirements. Perhaps this is the real basis that exists for the enemy’s “sabotage” stories. GERMAN DUMMY.

Tile unpalatable fact remains that Rumania is now completely governed by the Axis Powers. Taking the relative military strengths of this country and her neighbours, it can only be concluded that the -attack upon'her had been deferred not because of the strength of the Rumanian army or the extemporised frontier defences, but solely on account of the wider diplomatic and strategic conditions that had prevailed. Germany’s antidote to the Allied blockade is the Danube—it was so even before the collapse of France —and the lessons learned by the “great freeze” last winter have not been lost. Slie .has stepped in early enough to prevent Rumania hindering her barge traffic, if such were contemplated. . _ • Rumanian business houses liave in Die past been chiefly managed bv clever Jews, many of them from Transylvania and Bukovina. To-day anti-Semitism is rife and their lives and fortunes are practically forfeit. As in Germany, as in Poland, and everywhere within the reach of the swastika, they are among “the hunted.”

So Rumania and the Ru>"anians are again thrust into the .Balkan furnace. Their time of testing has arrived, and .-ill Europe will anxiously watch ’whether this conglomeration of races, welded together into a national unity, will again suffer disintegration or survive the ordeal and emerge stronger and more purposeful.