Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-29
BY WILLIAM HARD.

Keen interest has been created in
Washington by the way in which the
intervention OF our State Department
In the recent Manchurian affair has
resulted In q violent outbreak of bad
feeling in Russia against Rumania in
the matter of thu province Of Bessarabia,
which Is r. IN 1000 miles away
| from NJ -. It is perceived that
our OPP ms under the Kellogg BRAND
peace pact may lead us indirectly into
every corner of the world and may stir
up any international political question
anywhere existing
Opponents of the administrations
policy under the peace pact contend
that the emergenCe Of the BeSsarabian
question into the orbit of the conse-
quences of American diplomacy proves
that we are embarked upon what they
call dangerous meddlesomeness,"
which might some day involve us in re-
mote and unnecessary wars. Defenders
OF the administrations policy, on the
other hand, maintain that only by
worldwide moral interest in the per-
petuation of peace under the peace pact
can the American Republic preserve it
self from becoming entangled in the
spread OF remote wars, and that 1t is
necessary and wise to take what are
called risks for peace"
X
This debate has been in progress In
Washington for long time, but 1t has
now come to high heat through the
addition to it of the fuel of the Bes-
sarabia controversy and through the in
teresting coincidence that the present
Rumanian Minister here, Mr.. Charles
A. DaVila, was the Rumanian repre-
sentative at Moscow in the early part
Of this year for the signing of the Spe-
cial "outlawry of war" peace pact be-
tween Russia, Esthonia, Latvia, Poland
and Rumania, through which it was
reasonably supposed that the BeS-
sarabian question had been set at rest
and that Russia had accepted the in
clusion Of EcSsarabia within Rumanian
territory.
That special peace pact of last Feb
ruary brought the terms Of the Kellogg
BRAND peace pact into operation be-
forehand between Russia and its four
| western neighbors south of the Gulf of
Finland. In the preamble to the spe-
cial pact the five signatorieS to it
| stated that it was their intention in
the pact ito contribute to the mainte-
nance OF existing peace between their
respective countries" In the case of
Rumania this reference to existing
peace" was Of high significance in re-
| lation to BeSSarabia, which lies on the
Rumanian- Russian frontier, and which
| now has suddenly become, by indirec-
ton, an object OF American concern.
4
BeSSarabia, which contains very few
Russians in proportion to its total pop
ulation Of approximately three millions
was annexed by Russia from Turkey
| by war in 1912. 1t lay in the possess
sion Of Russia, though half its popu-
lation was Rumanian and though most
| the rest of 1t was Ukrainian and Jewish
and German IT,! toward the end of the
late Great War. Then the national Bes-
sarabian council. entitled the "Sfatul
Tarei," first declared Bessarabia to be
| independent and then declared its union
with Rumania.
This union, however was never recog-
niZed by the Russian Soviet authorities,
| who continued to allege that BeSSarabia
was in Rumanian power through the
use of troops and through a condition
! of war, until the signing of the special
flve-power peace pact last February,
| the preamble OF which contained the
| already quoted words, "the maintenance
| of existing peace between the reSpec-
tive countries"
The statement that peace existed be-
tween Russia and Rumania was taken
/ by the Rumanians to mean that the
! Russians were now willing to admit
in Bessarabia and that the peaceful
and lawful union of Bessarabia with
Rumania was now recognized by the
Russians, even as it had already been
| formally recognized by Great Britain
and France and Italy.
f.
This was the situation until this last
week when the Rumanian government.
| desiring to cooperate with the United
States in its Kellogg BRAND peace pact
policy, dispatched to Moscow a note in
| which, in strict harmony with the
precedent set by the American Gov
| eminent, 1t politely asked the Russians
to remember the Kellogg BRAND peace
| pact and to be guided by it in their re-
lationS with China.
This note was to be transmitted to
the Russian foreign ONCE in Moscow
| by the French Ambassador stationed
In Moscow, but the transmitting of 1t
met with failure. The Russian foreign
minister, by all accounts Of the incident
here received. first refused to read the
note, then refused to have it read to
him, and then refused to have it left
| on his table. His manifest lact of cor
diality toward the note is not, however
what especially distresses the Ru-
| manianS. Their resentment is much
more particularly aroused by the in
slant revival at Moscow of official verbal
attacks upon Rumania on the point
Of Bessarabia and its future.
The official organ of the Russian
Soviet government, the newspaper
called TSvestia, has discussed the in
PREVENTION Of Rumania in the Man
churian affair and has described 1t a.
UK v,non - c,,v,ta.Y ,,...,... a.. a.,