FIVE NATIONS' FATES

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5324, 10 February 1947, Page 4

FIVE NATIONS' FATES

JpEACE treaties with five former enemy countries will begin to U^dergo their final shaping in Paris to-day. They are Italy, Rumania, Hungafy, Bulgaria, and Finland. The Italian case has been well canvassed. For over three years, from the "stab in the baclc" on June 10, 1940, until the armistice on September 8, 1943, ; Italy was o.fficially at war with the Allies fiut the conflict, continued by the Germs^i occupation forces in the country, was not finally resolved until Field-Marshal Alexander reeeived their unconditionpPsurrender on May 2, 1945. In the main, Italy escaped the worst effects of the war, both in losses of life and of property, yet she has not only had a disproportionate amount of U.N.R.R.A. relief but has reeeived considerable financial assistance from Ameriea, who has made Italy her special protege in the European sphere. Substantial, demands have been made upon her but it is not beyond her capacity to meet them, especially as her agricultural and northern industry are largely unimpaired. The Italians have done their best to distract attention from the economic to the pclitical aspects of their case, especially in regard to the Yugoslav claims to Trieste. It will be unfortunate for all concerned in reacbing an early and firni settlement if Slav suspicion and stubbornness hold up arrangements for the establishment of an international zone and perpetuate the need for continued Allied policing of Venezia Guilia. The same diffieulties are not expected in settling accounts with the other four countries. As for -Rumania, she has already ceded Besarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet, but the award by Hitler of a Transylvanian area to Ilungary has been repuliated, so she has pro'bably gained more in the Iqng run by an Allied victory than she would "have done from an Axis triumph. When Russian forces occupied Buda, in Noveniber, 1944, Hungary had been actively at war with the Allies, excepting Poland, and chiefly against Yugoslavia, for just on four years. Conditions in the country have been constantly reported for some nionths as being very disturbed. The

Hungary of 1939 was only one-third of the size of the country before the first world war; it is probable further reductions are immin'ent, but a small Hungary can be even more menacing to peace than the expansive land of 1914. Finland's case niainly concerns Russiax who has adopted "a policy of coneiliation towards her neighbour, former Grand Duchy and rpcent enemy that has been much less apparent in other quarters.