PARTITION OF RUMANIA

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21200, 24 August 1940, Page 6

PARTITION OF RUMANIA

Rumania is rapidly receding from its position of predominating influence in the Balkans into comparative obscurity. Bessarabia and Bukovina have gone to Russia, South Dobrudja is being given to Bulgaria and only a great change in the general situation can save Transylvania, or a large part of it, from going back to Hungary. That will reduce Rumania to proportions readily “manageable” by the aggressive Powers. Perhaps for the first time in history, a large-scale readjustment of territories in the Balkans has been made without open war, but political and economic pressure has been none the less terrific. The muzzles of guns across the frontier have been just as effective as actual invasion. The world would like to hope that the adjustment had been made in good faith, in accordance with the dictates of justice and with a desire to maintain peace, but it knows that Rumania has agreed only under the most severe pressure and threats of a dire fate unless the wishes of more powerful States were met. Germany wanted “peace” in the Balkans and spared no effort to secure it. All Hitler’s plans might have gone awry if war had broken out. Rumania might have taken the risk of attack by defending her old boundaries, but she knew that in the process she might have suffered untold agony. And so she is falling back to her 1912 boundaries, abandoning dreams of Greater Rumania in the hope that the storm will pass over her bowed head. Hungary’s claims to Transylvania have so far been rejected, but apparently more on the grounds of the extent of the transfer demanded than on principle. It will not be surprising to hear that an agreement has been reached, for Hitler regards the matter as urgent. The division of Rumania may perhaps be regarded as another triumph for power politics, though in this case it was a comparatively simple matter as far as Germany was concerned. She bluntly demanded a settlement and left the other States to settle among themselves the amount of territory Rumania should yield. It is not impossible that the present reshuffle is sowing the seeds for future Balkan quarrels. The transfer of populations as well as territories may assist in preserving peace, but a bargain made under pressure from a third, fourth or fifth party usually does not stand the test of time.