Evening star., 1939-09-23
The Rumuniun PURGE

The Rumuniun Purge
To such masters of the ungentle
art of purge as Adolf Hitler and Josef
Stain, sanguinary events in Ruma-
MIA, following the assassination of
Premier Calinescu, can come neither
as surprise nor shock. The puni-
tive technique invoked by King
Carols new government of generals
bears striking resemblance to Hit
ler's purge of the Roehm gang of
alleged Nazi traitors, to the liquida-
tion of Dollfuss and his anti-Nazi
associates at Vienna and to Stalin's
wholesale execution OF the Tuka-
chevsky army group and the Zino-
vieff political faction two years ago.
Rumanias stern reprisals for M.
Calinescu's murder were reported
up to last night to total nearly two
thousand" executions of known
members of the pro-Nazi Iron Guard
Upon a triumvirate of three high
ranking army oficers-General Arge-
sanu as premier, General Ilcus as
minister of the interior and General
MarineScu as war minister-King
Carol has conferred dictatorial pow
ers to deal ruthlessly with the ma
tlonal emergency created by the Iron
Guards bloody elimination of Hit
ler's Rumanian archfoe. M. Calines-
GUS fate, in consequence, is being
speedily and terribly avenged. Not
only have groups of thirty or forty
Iron Guardists been placed before
government firing squads at each of
several concentration camps where
they were undergoing Imprisonment,
but In every one of Rumania's sew
enty-tWo administrative districts at
least three notorious Nazi agitators
have been similarly dispatched. Carol
and his advisers apparently came to
the conclusion that the Nazi threat
has attained dimensions requiring
that fire be fought with fire.
The shadow of the swastika and
the sickle and hammer fell nearer
to Rumania yesterday when the
Reich and the Soviet concluded an
agreement to partition Poland. The
Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics
was allocated approximately three
f1fths OF the country, its whole east
ernmost area, as the zone of occupa-
tion for the Red Army, while the rest,
Western Poland, falls to the Nazis.
The mind almost staggers at the
realization that a nation free and
unlnvaded less than four weeks ago,
today lies PROSTATE, her army almost
destroyed, her independence wiped
out, her territory divided between
two powerful neighbors. When
Poland's great American Revolution
ary hero, Kosciuzsko, fell in battle, a
poet wrote that Freedom shrieked."
That seems fitting epitaph to write
across the tomb of what only yester-
day was the Republic of Poland.
Rumania fears similar fate. AS
Poland's oppressed German racial
brethren" and oppressed Ukrainians
and White Russians" provided Hitler
and Stain, respectively, with pre-
texts for destroying Poland, so King
Carols people await the promulga-
ton of similar claims respecting Ru-
mania. Some seven hundred thou
sand Germans inhabit the country:
some one hundred and fifty thousand
Russians live in the "lost provinces"
OF Bessarabia and Bukovina. Just be-
fore the assassination of Calinescu
Germany shook her mailed fist in
Bucharest. She successfully insisted
that fugitive President Moscicki and
Foreign Minister Beck of Poland and
Field Marshal Smigly-Rydz should
be interned in Rumania for the du-
ration of the war Berlin is also
c1amoring for large Rumanian oil
supplies, although these were previ-
ously pledged to Britain and France.
Whether rugged firmness toward the
Nazis, which the Bucharest govern
ment is exhibiting in retaliation for
the CalineScu crime, will check either
Nazi arrogance or the German-Rus-
sian steam roller now laundering at
Rumania's border, events of these
dizzy days will no doubt speedily
demonstrate. These are moving at
much too rapid a clip to warrant
speculation covering even as brief a
span as any current twenty-four
hours. The Balkans may overnight
once again justify their claim to the
title of Europe's cockpit.