EUROPE-ASIA: North of Suez

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From. Bucharest, from Budapest, from Paris—to which all grapevines lead—came reports last week of marching men:

Four divisions of German troops, about 60,000 men, moving southeastward into the Russian-held portion of old Poland. How far were they going? What were they going to do?

In the Balkans 50,000,000 people, in Turkey 16,000,000, in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, and Iraq 5,400,000 more had, whether they knew it or not, an acute interest in these questions—and many of them knew it, 'for hundreds of thousands were under arms and being called to arms. From the Adriatic to the Caspian the little nations of eastern Europe and western Asia trembled and prepared for the worst—not knowing what the worst might be.

The reported transfer of so many German troops (reported as three armored divisions and one mechanized) from "Germany" into "Russia" was an important move in Europe's enormous battle of power politics. That battle has been in full swing much longer than the actual military maneuvers of World War II. Waged by diplomacy, by finance, by trade treaties, by propaganda and racial tensions, any day it might break into actual man-killing war on new fronts because in the wings of the Near East stand huge armies stationed there as potentials to back up the war of wangling.

Ever since the rape of Poland Rumania has been in a resigned state of war jitters and martial law. The railroads have been jammed to bursting with soldiers on the move night & day. German and British agents campaign furiously from headquarters on different floors but under the same Bucharest roof (Athénèe Palace Hotel). While Bucharest enjoys a superficial building boom topped off by a fancy new palace, King Carol has taken his country's whole life into his own hands in a desperate effort to save his Kingdom.

Military preparedness against threats from the north and east is, for King Carol, no more important than lining up his neighbors on the west and south. For Rumania was a gainer by the last war. Not only does Russia want back Bessarabia, but Hungary wants back Transylvania, Bulgaria wants back Dobruja—Rumania's northeast, northwest and southern provinces. Security against his Balkan neighbors until after the Red menace is past is the object of King Carol's earnest conversations with Regent Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and of next month's meeting of the Balkan Entente (Rumania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey) over which Rumania's Foreign Minister Gafencu will preside.

The new and badly feared presence of Soviet Russia on Hungary's northeast border is a controlling factor in the present tentative Balkan lineup. If that line-up holds and Rumania has to fight Russia, Hungary will not grab for Transylvania, nor Bulgaria for Dobruja. Hungary may even remain benevolently neutral and let Italian and Yugoslav war supplies cross into Rumania. Never were the Balkans more united than they seemed last week against Russia. A cordial exchange even took place between Bulgaria and her old enemy Turkey.