Evening star., 1937-03-07
|NAZIS EXTEND INFLUENCE
NPOLAND AND RUMANIA
Berlin Encourages Development of
Authoritarian States as Bulwarks
Against Soviet.

| on the borders Of Germany ready to
cooperate with the French armies
which should Immediately be sent to
| the Rhine"
Paul-Boncour, the weakest foreign
minister France has had the mis-
| fortune to have at the head of the
! Quai d'Orsay, was Mortified at the
! suggestion and intimated to the Polish
| ambassador that the field marshal
must be somewhat out of his head.
| This was relayed to Warsaw, and a
| week later Polish mission arrived in
Berlin to negotiate ten-year COM
mercial and non-aggression pact.
Today, despite the eternal friend
ship with France" ballyhoo which APP
pears at every critical moment in the
French and Polish press, the relations
between the Reich and Poland are
profoundly friendly.
The people themselves like the Ger
mans more than they like Frances
ally. Russia, and have real kindred
! feelings toward the Hungarians. The
French they do not know; they are
| too far away. The German propa-
ganda has exploited the blunders
made by the French government, such
as the deportation of some $4,000 Po-
lish workers from France. and has
created a feeling which might be de-
scribed at best as indifference toward
! the great allied republic
/ Antagonism Shared.
The Franco-Russian alliance has
not helped matters Finally. the an
tagonism shown in Berlin tor2~d
Czechoslovakia is fully shared in
Poland. The unfair settlement of the
dispute over Teschen, small province
which used to be part of the Austro-
| Hungarian empire and which the Poles
claimed as their own when that en-
pire was partitioned, still rankles in
| Poland
For the time being Poland aspires
! to maintain a position of neutrality
in any European imbroglio. But she
| really has taken the position Italy
adopted in 1914. Officially, she is
Frances ally. In fact she has an ire
/ dentist problem in regard to Czecho-
I slovakia just as Italy had one N re-
J gard to Germany's ally, Austro-Hun-
gary, in the early days of the last
war Poland's neutrality in the next
+ confagration will not last as long as
did Italy's in 1914. The Poles are O
hard bargaining lot. They will wait
/ until they see which way the wind
blows in an eventual conflict before
/ they declare themselves in favor Of
Germany.
Gen. Goering has been wild boar
hunting in Poland. He is believed to
have brought back to Berlin more than
couple of boar heads-a definite
promise from the Polish government
tnat in the event Of German
conflict, in which Czechoslovakia must
necessarily be involved, Germany can
count not only on Poland's neutrality
but eventually on her assistance as
we'll. The price offered is the whole Of
the Teschen district plus an additional
section Of CZechoSlovakia, including.
it is said. the old fortress Of Olnutz.
or Olomouc. as it is known these days.
To insure a more ready cooperation.
the Berlin government is anxious 10
see the establishment Of 100 per cent
authoritarian government in Warsaw
1t is essential for the future plans of
Hitler that the key neighboring coun-
tries should be allied to Germany not
only on paper but by a similar and
sympathetic system of government II
it is true that the German armies are
preparing to cross the borders of the
Reich and penetrate into the Ukraine,
they must march through friendly ter
ritories-territories of states which
have the same political aims and the
same form of government.
In Sympathy With France.
The situation is clear as far as Ru-
mania is concerned. The present Ru-
manian government is strongly in
sympathy with France. But Premier
Tataresco Is holding on to his Office
only by the grace of God. His popu-
larity is waning and the Iron Guards.
the Rumanian FascistS subsidized py
Berlin, are getting stronger every day.
King Carol was at one time a SYM
pathizer with the Iron Guards when
he found them a useful tool to be
played against the opposition parties.
Now Carol is somewhat scared of his
old friends; they have gained too much
influence with the peasantry, which
forms the bulk of the Rumanian popu-
lation, and with the intelligentsia in
cities-mostly the young students. AS
in Poland and in Germany, anti
Semitic sentiment forms the back.
ground of the Nazi movement in Ru-
mania.
Carol cannot stem the rising tide of
nazism in his country. This explains
his lukewarm support of the present
government in the suppression of the
Nazi movement. He is sure to hop on
the bandwagon the day the Iron
Guards decide that the time has come
to take over the reins of government.
He would rather be King in an au-
thoritarian state than an exile in a
democratic country.
While Stanley Baldwin and Leon
Blum talk about the great benefits Of
democracy and fill the air of Europe
with the noise of hammers which are
building in haste the new British and
French war machines. Hitler and his
associates are working speedily to close
in on European democracies. To the
Poles and the Rumanians they show
the mighty German armies and the
benefits of the authoritarian form of
government-doubtful to countries like
the United States, Great Britain. and
France, but impressive to the small
countries of Eastern Europe. The
claws which eventually are to squeeze
the Russian bear are being manufac-
tured in Berlin for useful application
in Warsaw and in Bucharest.
Copyright. 1879