Cannot Square Balkan Circle

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 187, 9 August 1940, Page 7

Cannot Square Balkan Circle

Disillusionment Folows Nazi Domination

STATES WILL BECOME GERMAN VASSALS (British Official Wireless.) Received Thursday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, Aug. 7. The growing disillusionment in countries immediately concerned in Hitler’s plans for reorganising Europe is reflected in dispatches from newspaper correspondents in these and other neutral countries. The Times says: “Hitler’s ostentatious undertaking to square the Balkan circle has so far only made a more confused pattern of politics in that part of Europe and rendered less secure the position of his latest protege, King Carol. His own special disciples, the Iron Guard—the Nazis of Rumania — have issued a rousing manifesto, certainly not pro-German and actually introducing a pro-British note into its battlecry. “The Rumanian leaders who went to Berchtesgaden see their supporters slipping and hear their silenced critics onco more raising their voices while eminent Translyvanians who had parted company have united to oppose the concessions recommended by Hitler. While the Rumanian resistance is stiffening the Hungarian demands are apparently rising. “It seems in any case that Hungary expects very substantial territorial concessions to be made and Rumania is going to find it difficult to yield any territory at all in Transylvania. “In regard to the Bulgarian claims in Dobruja, the way to a settlement is clearer. There never was much justification for the seizure of this territory by Rumania and, according to our Balkans correspondent, the Bucharest Government agreed in principle to the return of its southern portion to Bulgaria. Britain has already indicated that she considers a fair solution could be reached on these lines and it may confidently be predicted that Britain is not in the least likely when victory has been won t-o wish to upset any settlements which have been amicably reached between Rumania and her neighbours in the south-east or north-west. “It is believed in the Balkans capitals that the German view impressed upon the Rumanians, Hungarians, Yugoslavs and Bulgarians alike is that the | whole region is destined by nature and the will of the Fuhrer to become the purveyor of primary products, particularly food, oil and minerals, to the Reich. It must, therefore, so tho story goes, be economically reorganised as a German ‘Lebensraum.’ “Since economic organisation could never be satisfactory unless directed from a central headquarters it follows that general political control must also emanate from Berlin. Consequently, the countries of south-eastern Europe are not expected to have independent foreign policies at all. “These dependent States must moreover maintain a certain balance between themselves. None must dominate the others for all alike must be dominated by the Reich. Of this German plan it may be said at once that it is completely vitiated by the overriding presumption that all is to be done for the benefit of Germany rather than the States immediately concerned.” The Manchester Guardian says: “Hitler is fond of emphasising his sense of responsibility to Europe and contrasting with it the selfishness of the Western Powers. A leader of the people, it is represented, is to direct not only its own destinies but those of the smaller peoples belonging to its living space.

“Europe is to be turned into a continent of colonial peoples, all made subservient to the interest of a responsible leader. France is to return to agriculture, tho Balkans must grow and produce just what the Germans find convenient, all the economic life of the States that are subdued is to be crushed into the German system feeding Germany’s industries and consuming Germany’s products. “Tho German order for Europe is a plan under which different peoples would lose their liberty and obtain in exchange not a higher standard of economic life, but distress and economic servitude.

“The spectacle presented by the British Commonwealth to-day is tho most dramatic answer to Hitler’s claim that Iris plan is generous, whereas our use of power has been entirely unscrupulous and selfish. The truth is that our experience gives us the qualification for leadership that the German lacks, for we have learnt that to give freedom is to gain strength, whereas Germany still trusts to force as the secret of power.”