Evening star., 1940-07-07
Soviet Expansion
Seen Terminating
Marriage With Nazis
Hitler Anxious to Hold
orr Open Rupture for
Present, However
BY LELAND STOWE,

hloy blCoo SoSll publASAy, OllSl Z
can be no doubt that tn" Berlin
Moscow honeymoon as feted so
ostentatiously by German Foreign
Minister Joachim Won Ribbentrop
and Soviet Premier Foreign Com
missar Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff, last
August, is now over
The Russo-German marriage of
convenience" humiliated Dictator
Josef v. Stains Anglo-French
suitors and assured the outbreak
of the second World War. Today
this opportunistic political partner
ship is rapidly reaching the stage
where the possibilities of an eventual
divorce are secretly being consid-
cred by both parties.
The Soviets' thrust down through
Bessarabia to the mouth of the
Danube has confirmed the under
lying clash of Nazi-Soviet interests
and reafflrmed Berlin'S ill-diSguiSed
displeasure over the Red occupa-
GLOIl o4 lllI IdIIlI IL
all Balkan observers now agree that
Berlin and Moscow are suffering
from incompatibility of tempera-
ment-and also of appetites. What
has become a marriage of incon-
venience threatens trouble and
maybe plate-throWing or even knife
throwing in the course of the COM
ing months.
Open Rupture Soon Unlikely.
Despite this inevitable evolution,
both sides are doing what they can
to preserve a facade of happy
political cohabitation. This is par
ticularly true of Nazi Germany in
regard to the present situation in
Rumania and throughout the Bal
kans. Fuehrer Adolf Hitler is COM
PEELED to cultivate peace in the
east so long as he must continue
to wage war in the west. Accord
ingly, no open rupture in Nazi-
Soviet relations seems probable for
some time, but latent animosities
are sharpened by every increase of
Soviet influence and power in
southeastern Europe.
Berlin has bowed as gracefully as
possible to the Kremlins annex
alton of Decentralization necessity
and with unqueStionable miSgiving
The NaziS even appear to have
counseled Bucharest to yield rather
than fight and equally to have dis
couraged Hungary from demanding
Pennsylvania at once, but this ap-
parent cooperation with Moscow,
1t is generally recognized. was die
tated by political eXpediency.
There is reason to believe that
Berlin has assured its sympathizers
in several Balkan capitals that its
present caution policy is only tempo
rary; also, that it has by no means
written off Southeastern Europe as
a natural zone of economic and po-
licical interest of the Nazi regime
Growing opposition between Ger
many and the Soviet Union must
simply be kept in as camouf1aged a
condition as possible, to gain time
and freedom for the western war.
Reich's Soybeans Seized.
Nevertheless, the manner of the
Kremlin's brusk move in the Baltic
area and again into Bessarabia has
shown that Stain has no intention
of trusting the assurances of Berlin
The Red Army moved across the old
Rumanian frontier so swiftly that it
seized the entire soybean crop in
Bessarabia. The Third Reich had
paid in advance more than 1000,-
100000 lei for this crop, which has
been estimated at approximately
10000 carloads. Thus Germany
seems to have lost this valuable sup
ply of soybeans. 1t is said that Ru-
mania, deprived Of it's most fertile
province, will now be unable to ex-
port either wheat or maize to the
Reich In addition, Rumania's great
oil refineries at PloeSti and Campina
now lie within easy reach of Soviet
arms.
Moscow's gains in Bessarabia have,
therefore, been achieved at very
real expense where Germany is con-
cerned, but the political advantages
to the Stalinists may prove, in the
immediate future, to be almost as
important as the economic advan-
tages. The Soviets have been quick
to pose as defenders of peasants
and laborers. not only inside Bes-
sarabia, but in regard to all Jewish
or other evacuees who have tried to
leave Rumania, fearing the es-
tabiShment of a regime of Nazi
ideologies and racial discrimination
in Bucharest. In both Bulgaria and
Yugoslavia the Soviets are also doing
their utmost to increase their hold
upon the masses and in these coun-
tries Moscow's prestige can only eX-
pand at the expense of Nazi loss.
Question of Dardanelles.
Finally, there remains the queS-
tion of Turkey mad the Dardanelles
and Soviet Russia is much nearer
to the Dardanelles than Nazi Ger
many is. Moreover, the Kremlin i;
much more free than is Berlin al
the present moment to exert power
politics upon the weary Turks.
Thus, Soviet diplomacy and po-
litical pressure is being exercised
with the greatest energy TOWARD
establishing strategic outposts
throughout Southeastern Europe
before Nazi Germany can turn it
undivided attention to the Balkans
If this Russian eXpansionist polio,
is really animated by natural mo-
tives of purity, it seems equally in
spired by deep distrust of Hitler
final objectives and fear of al
eventual attack by Germany upol
the Soviet Union itself.
Balkans diplomats are almos
unanimous these days on two points
If Hitler succeeds in forcing Britain
to her knees, they feel that al
armed conflict between the Nazi
and the Soviets is likely to be onl.
question of time. This probability
in turn. convinces them that Mos
COW will continue its Balkanic ex