The Waikato Times TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1940 GERMANY “CLAIMS” RUMANIA

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21208, 3 September 1940, Page 4

The Waikato Times TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1940 GERMANY “CLAIMS” RUMANIA

While Transylvanian Rumanians are beginning their tragic trek from their old homes to a very uncertain future in their own shrunken homeland, Germany and Russia have begun to argue which shall claim the right to call Rumania its own particular “sphere of influence. Rumania, apparently, is to have no voice in the matter. She may not trade or make friends where she wishes, but only where she is told. That is the result of the reign of power politics in Europe. Freedom of national expression has ceased to exist. The new order is dictated by Hitler and Stalin, with Mussolini flitting about on the outskirts.

From Bucharest, it is reported that the Italian and German Ambassadors at Moscow are visiting Molotoff, Russian Foreign Commissar, to present to him a declaration that Rumania lies within the German and not the Russian sphere of influence. Will Russia agree ? The two dictators have shared Rumanian territory. Russia unblushingly seized Bessarabia and Bukovina, but Germany acted through a third party, Hungary, to gain an undoubted control of the greater part of Transylvania and, if the diplomacy succeeds, influence over the whole of Rumania. It is stated that German troops will move across Hungary and take up positions guarding the Russian-Rumanian frontier and giving Germany access to the Black Sea. In these circumstances there is no reason to doubt whence came the force behind the Hungarian claim to Transylvania. Having consolidated their success the Germans are dropping their subterfuge of independent arbitration in the dispute. Ribbentrop puts it this way ; “The Axis has thus demonstrated anew that Italy and Germany are resolved to oppose Britain’s policy, which is intended to spread the war to the Danube.” Does this sound like arbitration or betray the slightest solicitude for the independent future of Rumania ? Germany and Italy have “guaranteed the integrity and inviolability of the Rumanian State” because Germany no longer regards Rumania as an independent State but as an appendage of the new German Empire. Italy agrees because of favours given by and hoped for from Germany. This mutual assistance of the totalitarian States at the expense of the independent countries of Europe has reached an amazing stage of brutality and unvarnished robbery.

At no other stage of the war have the interests of Germany and Russia been brought so near to a clash. If Russia refuses to regard Rumania as “within Germany’s particular sphere of influence,” what then? Italy and Germany will agree to give and take so.long as in the bulk both are gaining, and to some extent it has seemed that Russia has been co-operating to the same end. Possibly, therefore, instead of risking friction with Germany, Russia will give Germany a free hand in Rumania. Although it may be assumed that such an arrangement would not be altogether pleasing to Russia, the alternative seems to be the beginning of the end of the Russian-German alliance, and Stalin may not yet be ready to face such an emergency.