Evening star., 1940-04-18
Pressure on Rumuniu

nomic -sufhciency in spite of the
allied blockade. the increasing pres
sure they are putting on Rumania to
permit exports of oil and wheat tells
its own story. For the moment Ger
man demands are confined to trucu-
lent complaints by DR.. Karl Clodius,
head of Berlin trade delegation
which intermittently has been nego-
tiating and threatening at Bucharest
for weeks. So far his efforts to brow
beat Rumania into mortgaging the
produce of her oil and grain fields to
the Reich have been futile.
King Carols government insists on
remaining master in its own house,
but in the presence of the mailed fist
tactics to which the Nazis are resort
ing to insure their supply of Swedish
iron ore. the Rumanians cannot dis
miss the possibility that, like the
Danes and the Norwegians, they, too,
may become the object of ruthless
military measures undertaken to
keep Hitlers war machine going.
That German influence at Bucha-
rest is something to be reckoned
with was manifested yesterday when
the Rumanian Senate Professionally
accepted a government bill to give
Germany thirty-year lease on
almost 100000 acres of timber. This
was done in spite of testimony by
army officers that the lease would
endanger national defense. The
Minister of Agriculture defends the
grant on the ground that it is part of
an economic understanding with
Germany whichc inures greatly to
Rumania's benefit. High-ranking
military authorities retort that not
only are Central Rumania's vast
forest reserves natural defense
line, but that rental of them to
Germany would be grave strategic
error. It would allow Hitler to infil-
trate Rumania with huge corps of
expert foresters and workmen in
stantly convertible into soldiers at
the most vulnerable spot in the
country, along the old German bor-
der. The Minister Of Agriculture
admits the timber concession would
also permit the Nazis to build a rail-
road and sawmills for large-scale
lumber operations.
Bucharest is conscious of the grow
Ing difficulty of her position. Berlin
is vehemently protesting the embargo
just placed this week on wheat
exports and the temporary stop
page of oil shipments to Germany.
Rumania is resorting to these meas
ures to fortify herself by storage of
these vital commodities for her own
use. But the embargo unquestionably
deals a heavy blow at the Reich. In
the recent past Germany has OBJ
tained about two-thirds of her
normal wheat import from Rumania.
The blockade makes her equally as
dependent, or perhaps more so, on
Rumanian oil.
Nazi petroleum and gasoline needs
and hopes of supplying them from
Rumania are complicated by the fact
that British and French capital con-
trolls the oil output. The allies, it
goes without saying, are not pre-
pared to see their wells exploited for
Germany's benefit, and may be ex-
pected to match military force
against any Nazi attempt to coerce
Rumania. During the World War
Rumania's oil wells were destroyed
extensively on the eve of the Ger
man invasion. This time invasion
would be resisted by the formidable
allied-Turkish army mobilized in the
Near East under Marshal Weygand
for the purpose of thwarting at
tempts to convert Rumania or the
Caucasus into a German granary
and filling station, with naval opera
tions in the Black Sea bulking largely
in the picture.
If Hitler's oil and breadStuffs re-
quirements are as desperately urgent
as they seem, the long-feared out
break of war in Southeastern Europe
well may be imminent.