RUMANIA: Passage to Peace

Terror swept the Bessarabian plains, driving the peasant folk and bourgeoisie like leaves in a rising storm. The Red Army was less than 70 miles away and advancing westward from the Kiev bulge. Behind the crumbling German front, Rumania trembled.

To bolster the authority of pro-Axis Premier Ion Antonescu, fresh batches of Gestapo agents arrived in Bucharest. Temporarily as in neighboring Bulgaria (TiME, Jan. 10), the Nazi hold might be strong enough to prevent outright defection. But neither the Nazis nor the orders of the quisling Premier could halt Rumania's rising panic.

Politicians and Kings. Teheran doomed Rumania's hopes that it could: 1) retain its prewar frontiers; 2) win Anglo-U.S. political support against the Soviet Union. Now, Bucharest must think again and think fast. It must find an alternative regime and spokesman which will satisfy the U.S., Britain—and Russia.

Deputy Premier Mihai Antonescu (no kin to Premier Ion) might be one possibility; two others: Juliu Maniu, president of the National Peasant Party, and Constantin Bratianu, president of the National Liberal Party. Both Maniu and Bratianu recently wrote well-advertised letters to Premier Antonescu, denouncing the "anti-British and anti-American character you have given to the war," demanding peace before the war reaches Rumania's frontiers.

King Mihai seems to be preparing himself for the role which Vittorio Emanuele has assumed in Italy. For months, a subtle campaign has been developing in the Allied and neutral press, seeking to whitewash the young King and the discredited Rumanian royal family. Twice in recent weeks Mihai has called in Mahiu, presumably to fix up an approach to Britain. Both he and Queen Mother Helen have taken pains to visit U.S. airmen who have been forced down and sumptuously "imprisoned" in Rumania's mountains.

Partisans and Democrats. No Marshal Tito has emerged in Rumania, but three underground parties (the National Liberation Front, the Patriotic Front, the Anti-Fascist Committee for the Struggle for Peace) are guiding sabotage and organizing partisan resistance.

Last week, for the first time, London permitted a Rumanian exile (Decebal Mateescu, onetime Economics Attaché) to broadcast to the Rumanian people:

"The Rumanian people must work their passage home. Vocal protests against the continuation of the war mean nothing. You must . . . overthrow the present dishonored dictatorship and bring our country back to the Allies. Open and armed resistance must be set up. You must . . . realize once and for all that the Soviet. Union is regarded as an equal ally by Mr. Churchill. . . and President Roosevelt. . . . Rumania stands only to gain by securing the enduring friendship of our powerful eastern neighbor."