Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-14
Hitler Has Closed Balkan Door to Russians
By Sending German Troops Into Rumonio
Axis Is Free to Pursue
Plans in Own Time,
Stowe Declares
By LELAND STOWE,

Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent
BUDAPEST, Oct. 14.-Josef v.
Stains Red Army is now frozen
out Of the Balkans and it also is
virtually out of the, war as an
offensive factor. BY reducing
Rumania to a protectorate and
by posting several Nazi divisions
through the lower Carpathians
down to the lower Danubian
Marshes, Hitler appears to have
secured the back door of the
Balkans from any possible Rus
sian invasion.
historic dimensions. 1t is likely to
be as important for the develop
ment of Nazi-FaScist imperialist
plans in the Mediterranean and
Near East as Germany's conquest
of Norway was for her blitzkrieg
drive in the western front For the
presence of German legion in Ru-
mania promises to free the hand
of the axis dictators so that they
can pursue plans of their own
choosing and timing in regard to
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece and,
perhaps, eventually either the OAR
danelles or Syria.
Ever since its occupation of Bes-
sarabia at the end of June, the Red
Army has been a constant threat
and a considerable paralyzing in
fluence to German and Italian
movements in the Balkans. Now
Russian divisions are stuck along
Rumania's Prut River just as they
have been immobilized for a year
along the Bug River in Poland. The
Soviet troops are stuck in Bessa-
rabia because they failed to seize
the 40-mile strip between Focsani
at the lower tip Of the Carpathians
and Galatz just above the Danube's
delta while Germany could not have
opposed them.
Gateway to the Balkans.
The narrow gap between Focsani
way to the Balkans, where Russian
strategy is concerned The Red
Army has lost it because it was not
strong enough to dare to invade
Rumania proper at the end OF Au-
gust while the Transvlvanian contro-
versy was still at its boiling point.
Now Hitler's diplomatic coup
through his precipitant Vienna die
tate" of a Transylvanian settlement
can no longer be underestimate.
At Vienna Moscow was outmaneu-
vered and outsmarted. Now, in Ru-
mania and in terms Of military
power. the Soviets are also being
outweighed.
This Is true because Of the serious
weaknesses Of the Red Army In Of
fensive capacity. Nfty thousand
veteran German troops and 1 few
hundred Nazi airplanes inside Ru-
mania will be quite enough to give
pause to Russian forces several times
as large on the eastern shores of
the Prut River Most military OBJ
servers in the Balkans are agreed
about that. They see little left for
the Soviets to do but continue to
build defensive positions as fervish-
ly as possible just as they have been
doing for months along their Polish
frontier. All OF which means that
Hitler's Russian flank will soon be
stabilized from the Baltic down to
the Black Sea.
The speed and nature of the
vienna dictate" has caused great
speculation in Balkan capitals ever
since it occurred. Why. it has been
asked. did the axis dictators give
Hungary such a narrow, uneconomic
and exposed. spearhead through
Pennsylvania? Why did they give
Hungary a new shape as fantastic
as that which Czecho- Slovakia once
had. and which at the same time
satisfied neither the Hungarians nor
the Rumanians?
Facts of Dictate Revealed.
1t can now be stated with abso-
lutte confidence that the Vienna
dictate was. in turn, dictated by
fear of further expansion into Ru-
mania and that it was directed by
Hitler first and foremost against the
Russians. Recently 1 have learned
the following facts authoritatively
for the first time.
When the Hungarian-R umanian
negotiations were deadlocked at
Turnu-Severin more than one month
ago, both parties appealed to Berlin
to arbitrate. Hitler refused to arbi-
trate and sent word that the Tran
sylvanian question should be de-
ferred for settlement until the wars
end. That was on Monday On
Tuesday morning Red troops started
moving across the Prut River That
same night Hitler hastily invited the
Budapest and Bucharest govern
(See STOWE, Page AID