Evening star., 1939-09-22
Thunder Over Rumoniu


the assassination of Rumanian Prime
Minister Armand Calinescu would be
a tragedy of significance. Occurring
at such an hour as this, the murder
OF the statesman distinguished for
his hostility to the pro-Nazi Iron
Guard organization assumes the
magnitude of political crime that
cannot be disassociated from condi-
tions now convulsing all Europe and
which have within the past few DAYS
swept to the borders of King Carols
own country. Bucharest dispatches
attribute M. Calinescu's death di-
rectly to conflicting national inter-
ests arising from the war"
Germany's covetous designs on
Rumanla are as old as Hitlerism.
Nazl intrigue there has been coinci-
dent with and in general similar to
the subversive propaganda that was
carried on in Austria, Czecho-Slo-
vakia and Poland, preparatory to the
bringing OF those countries in rapid
! succession under German sover-
eighty. The Iron Guard is the same
sinister, disintegrating influence in
Rumania that Henlein's organization
was in the Sudetenland and that
Foerster's was in Danzig, the Corridor
and Poland.
King Carol and successive national
ministries at Bucharest have had to
oattle tooth and nail to keep the
Iron Guards brazen pro-Nazi machi-
nations within bounds, especially in
the field OF anti-Semiticism. Cabinets
nave come and gone in consequence
OF lncessant German-controlled in
reference with the internal life of
Rumanla, and blood has been shed on
more than one occasion, as the result
OF assasslnations like that to which
frlme Minister Calinescu fell victim
yesterday.
The world will now wait anxiouslv
10 note the effects of the violent re-
moval OF the Nazis' Rumanian arch
Zoe. Is 1t a sign that Der Fuehrer is
on the verge of compelling King
carol and his government to bend the
knee to the Swastika, or suffer the fate
OF the Austrians, the Czechs and the
Poles? With Poland conquered by
the Nazl-Communist allies are they
ABOUT to invade the state that ad-
joins it on the southeast and which
IS the one barrier that separates the
German-Soviet conquerors from the
Black Sea? Rumania has feared
such a move by Hitler and Stain
from the moment their mon aggres-
sion" pact was sprung upon Europe
exactly month ago. Not only do
the Nazis covet the grain fields and
OIL wells OF Rumania-over the pro-
duce OF which, by recent CONNER
clal arrangement between Berlin and
Bucharest the Germans already have
seml-monopolistic control-but Ru-
mania subject to Hitler's will would
deal another powerful blow to the
Anglo-French "encirclement" bloc.
which more or less took Rumania
along with Greece and Turkey, un-
der its protective wing. The Soviet,
OF course, has special grudge
against Rumania because of Bessa-
rabia, which was taken away from
Russia after the World War and
given to the Rumanians. The Bessa-
rabians, like the Ukrainians. are
oppressed racial brethren" in the
Moscow lexicon.
The proud Rumanian people and
their small but capable army may
be relied upon to give gallant &C
count of themselves, if they must
fight for their existence, even though
resistance against a combined Ger
man-Russian onslaught could not be
prolonged one. Carols people have
poignant memories of the German
occupation in 1916-17-18. They will
not submissively accept a repetition
of that experience.