BALKAN ENTENTE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 400, 6 April 1937, Page 7

BALKAN ENTENTE

DEFINITELY UNDER TEST. Power for Peace or War. , I Th? cohesion or otherwise of the j .i.tle entente —Czechoslovakia, Yugo- I slavia and Rumania—is a factor that may some day determine lienee or war in Europ., writes. an overseas correspondent. The fabric of the snten.e is definitely under test. (Czechoslovakia is the most exposed of the three States to ex.ernal danger, as a ’cursory glance at the map will show, and the danger would be grea.er if there -Were reason to be lieve that she could not count on the support of her partners. The passage o< years has increased rather .han sohed Czechoslovakia’s external difficulties. Hungary has relinquish d none of her territorial claims on it and the other succession S ates. The menace of the reconstitution of Austria Hungary under a Hapsburg monarch is as alive as ever. A new and more formidabl danger uas loomed in th. quarrel between Germuny and Russia. It a conflict, j between Berlin and Moscow breaks out Czechoslovakia runs ths risk of becoming a battleground.

Immediately after Germany’s rearmament Czechoslovakia sought a wsy out of her predicament by con■luding a mutual assistance pact with Russia. In case of an attack by G.r many Russia will go to her help, but this pledge has little practical value if Russian troops, cannot use northern Rumania to enter Czechoslovakia from the east. An oil deal established at the Bratislava conference some time ago ’Cvtring the ques ion of Rumanian . 1 supplies to the little entente has 1 Iped to ighten the slipping bonds >f the little entente powers, but .tuania and Yugoslavia are still very ukeiVarm abou Czechoslovakia’s aliixiice wiln Silesia. Yugoslavia lias tin urgent need of .il tor war res rves and for ithe dead ly insreasing requirements of he raval and air fleets. The need is estima ed at a minimum of 40,000 ons yearly, whil.: a further 40,000 tons' are necessary for completing the .•i-serve. Yugoslavia tried at the Bratislava conference to obtain this .■I from Rumania in a crude state, to that it could be worked in one of the great petroleum refineries to be built in Yugoslavia. The plan has wt yet be n fulfilled. Another impor.ant step taken to check th© expansion or’ Germany in the Balkans is a u agreement that the first 40,J00 tons of Rumanian refined mineral oil would be delivered immediatel.i’ to Yugoslavia for reserve purposes in return for copper ore. The French-controlled Mines de Bor have hitherto only been able to ex port crude copper ore, and a yeer must elapse before Yugoslav metal refineries can be able ti bring refined topper on to tie market. Yugoslavia is trying to obtain in London necessary discount credit for the six-year Treasury bonds which Rumania demands for deliverin'’ crude 0.1. Should the discount credit be ob allied there is a possibility that the Yugoslav-Rumanian petroleum factory may ba built. Also, certain oilfields lying on the Danube may be given over to the Yugoslav Government by Rumania '■for working, and the crude product would then be transported along the Danube to the neiu factory. The building of a proposed new refinery by German interests would then be doubtful. Ihe Bratislava negotiations fol lowed the agreement last summer between Rumania and France whereby every year a ecnsidierable part of the Rumanian petroleum output is to be taken by the I’l'ench market. This arrangement is good for 12 years, and the yearly quantity of petroleum taken by France nVill be 700,000 tons The real motive of this agreement was the exclus on from the Rumanian market as far as possible of G r many, which, in the p, a . a t, has ordered ever-increasing quantities of petroleum from Ru.ranla. for which she either did not nay at all or at b st Paid by compensation. Germany, which in 1934 took about 250,000 tons □f petroleum from Rumania, increased this import last year to 700,000 tons.

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