Evening star., 1939-10-01
Dark Lantern Diplomacy

Enough has happened IN the purely
diplomatic branch of Europe's war
unbelievable, since its outbreak
month ago, to prepare a dazed and
dizzy world for almost anything.
The gyrations of German and Rus
sian statecraft, the double dealing
and double-crossing which it has
pursued at every turn, can be
matched only by the duplicity as
sociated with the name of Machi-
avelli, exponent incompatible of the
theory that in the lexicon of inter-
national relations there is no such
word as honor and that always the
end justifies the means.
Moscow last week was the scene of
Machiavellianism, twentieth cen
tury brand, incarnate. Hitler, rep
resented by his intriguer in chief Won
Ribbentrop, and Molotoff, Stains
agent for foreign affairs, were the
chief dramatis personae. Their ne
gotiations for the partition of Po-
land, the subjugation of Estonia to
Soviet will and the scheme to con-
front Britain and France with a
MAKE peace on our terms else"
ultimatum took place during the
presence at the Kremlin of Sukro
Saracoglu, foreign minister of Tur-
key. He went to Moscow week ago
to discuss Turkeys role in the Near
East, role which indeed has been
greatly altered by the sudden
emergence of Russia as Germany's
partner in ordering the doctrines of
Eastern Europe. Presumably there
was to emerge from the Turko-Rus-
sian conversations some Black Sea
pact which, under Soviet leadership,
would be signed by all Black Sea
nations including Rumania and Bull
garia. ....
Turkey since last May, in the case
of Britain, and since June, in the
case of France, has had a mutual
assistance understanding with the
western powers, its primary pro-
vision being that aid would be ex-
tended in case of aggression which
might lead to war in the Mediter-
ranean area. Those were the days
when Chamberlain and Daladier
were patching up their anti-Hitler
''peace bloc" and when there was
reason to expect that the Berlin
Rome axis might eventually draw
Italy into Nazi war schemes and into
adventures on the Reich's behalf in
the waters adjacent to Turkey and
Greece, as we'll as on North African
territory.
Now, with startling suddenness,
comes the revelation that Turkey
has notified the democratic powers,
her mutual assistance partners, that
her obligations to them will be an
nulled if the Allies become involved
in war with Soviet Russia. Coming at
the time it does, on the heels of the
Ribbentrop- -Molotoff agreement to
act in common-at first by CONSUL
tation"-if Britain and France de-
cline peace with Germany on Hit
ler's terms, there is more than
ground for suspicion that the die
tator's diplomacy has again played
a trump card at the democracies' ex-
pense. It means that Moscow and
Berlin have devised one more meth
cd by which they think they can
blackmail London and Paris into
an ignominious peace.
Is Rumania also about to be taken
In tow? Foreign Minister Gafencu is
due to leave Bucharest for Moscow
tomorrow. Has Nazi Communist
statecraft a rod in pickle for the
country of which the U. S. S. R.,
through absorption of Eastern Po-
land, has just become nextdoor
neighbor? Is Bessarabia doomed to
go the way of Sudeten Czechoslo-
vakia and the Polish Ukraine? And
Is Hungary next?