RUMANIA’S TRAGIC MISTAKE

Waikato Times, Volume 131, Issue 21907, 10 December 1942, Page 2

RUMANIA’S TRAGIC MISTAKE

Rumania, according to information that is described as reliable, has lost 250,000 men killed or permanently disabled as one of the costs of collaborating with Germany in the attempt to enslave Europe. Rumania provides an appalling example of the fate of the smaller nations of Europe which were foolish enough to imagine that Germany would win the war and that they would gain a share of the spoils. It might be said that those who opposed Germany, if only in spirit, suffered also, but with the possible exception of Poland, no European State has suffered more than Rumania. And the worst is yet to come. So far all the losses have been incurred in offensive action; the terrors of the defensive and final defeat have yet to be experienced. In the end Rumania will find herself among the defeated nations with all her vainglorious dreams in ruins about her. Perhaps nothing that could have been done would have saved Rumania from occupation by the Germans. But occupation was a far different matter from collaboration. The Rumanian army was made available for the purposes of Germany, and it has been used with ghaitly results. Rumanians at home are no better off than the people of other occupied countries, while the army is suffering untold agonies in the snows of Russia. Perhaps they still imagine that this is merely suffering on the road to victory. When they realise that they are vainly going through the ordeal merely to serve the ends of Germany, there will be a terrible awakening. Rumania was awkwardly placed geographically and politically. Like the rest of Europe she had to guess which side would win the war. Motives apparently did not Collaboration with the Nazis was deliberately chosen. Collaboration has deteriorated into slavery, and the end will be disaster.