The Wilmington morning star., 1940-07-02
Editorial Comments
From Other AnqIes
THE RUSSIAN STROKE
New York Herald-Tribune

The Soviets have armored columns, too; and
their sudden entry into southeastern Europe,
shattering the moment of. silent tension be.
France and the launching of the attempt on
Great Britain, takes on an only more dramatic
significance as it's reverberations spread. One
question was rising more and more insistentIy
yesterday in the dust of the Russian tanks as
they rumbled southwark across Bessarabia. How
far was this an agreed move among the three
d~lctators, how far, perhaps, was it not?
The evidences Of surprise and disarray in
the arrogant and usually woodworking Nazi
diplomatic machine seemed too many to be
d1sregarded. On Thursday morning Berlin re-
ports were deprecating the idea of immediate
Russian action and doubling whether Bes.
saraoia was "a live question at ALL" Later in
the day German quarters" in Bucharest were
repeatedly taking the same attitude; not until
late Thursday night was Berlin inspired to
claim that the Russian swoop was made in
accordance with a previous agreement delimit-
ing zones Of influence in the Balkans - an
agreement, incidentally, of which the first re-.
ported rumors had said nothing about Russia.
Yesterday there was even more confusion; the
Nazi Minister to Rumania was said in Bucha-
rest to be on his way to Vienna, and said in
Berlin to be remaining in Bucharest. At one
moment German legation officials in Bucha-
rest were ascrbing the Soviet raid to a Brit.
ish trick supposedly engineered by Sir Stafford
Grips, while Berlin was producing the di-
rectly contrary (and strangely %tenuous) theory
that the British were the real sufferers since it
was they who had guaranteed Rumania.
1t is as impossible as always to know the
truth. But the impression that the Russians
have thrown an awkward monkey wrench into
Herr Hitler's machinery for the Redistribution
OF the world"-perhaps not by their seizure of
Bessarabia, which has long been expected, but
at least by their timing Of the stroke - is too
strong to be resisted. They have certainly
cracked the whole Of southeastern Europe wide
open at the one moment when both Nazi and
Fascist policy seemed most plainly directed
toward keeping that area quiet; and a Soviet
advance toward the control of the Danube and
the Rumanian Gil fields on the very eve of the
Battle of Britain a battle which may well
turn on available supplies Of aviation gasoline
cannot be a matter of Indifference in Berlin
IL the Russians have again surprised the
gentlemen who sat down SO confidently with
them in the. famous agreement Of August, 1899,
their motives are uncertain. Perhaps Stain
acted simply to get what he wanted while the
time was propitious; perhaps it was with a
more direct idea of preparing himself to meet
a Nazi onslaught after the war in the west
should be over; perhaps there were more ag-
gressive plans in the mind of the secretive
master of the Kremlin, who has entertained
ideas of his own on the subject Of world power.
But those who wondered at the time whether
the Hitler "masterstroke' which opened the
present war was as mastery as it seemed have
now new reason for their speculations.