The Wilmington morning star., 1946-04-19
Soviet Danubia
By ANNE o'HARE MCCORMICK

The Danube is to middle Europe what the
Mississippi is to the American nidlands. It
rises in the mountains of the Black Forest
and wanders southwark in great loops and
curves for 1,750 miles, gathering up the soil
and silt, and in pre-war days the trade. of
many states before it enpties into its vast
delta, 1,000-square- waste of swamp and
marshes on the Black Sea. 1t flows through
capitals like Vienna and Budapest, Bratislava
and Belgrade. It is the historic boundary of
nations-Austria and Germany, Hungary and
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Rurnni Ru-
mania and Bulgaria.
No stream in the world is so international
in it's course For eight nations if you count
Switzerland, whose plateau it skirts in its up
per reaches. it is "the River Through it's
300 tributaries, some important waterways in
their own right like the Isar, the Save, the
Drave and the lisa, it drains all that part
of Europe which yesterday was the German
'Lebensraum'' and is today being organized
into the economic and political sphere Of the
Soviet Union.
No region is being so swiftly tied into a
trade network. The Russians in no hurry
to discuss the peace treaties Washington
chafes to dispose Of but they are moving in
such haste to sew up bilateral barter agree.
ments with the countries concerned that there
will not be much left to negotiate with the
western powers. great many anticipatory
and irreversible decisions are being made on
the ground while the Soviet delegate holds up
decisions in the Allied commission in London.
The Danube is thread binding the nations
on its banks into natural geographic union.
Political currents meet and churn in its tawny
stream. When the more farSighted statesmen
of these riparian lands used to talk of getting
together, they spoke in terms not of Balkan,
southeastern or mid-European but always Of
Danubian federation. And in the elaborate
studies in postwar planning carried out in the
State department during the first two years
Of the war, projects for such a federation
were not only seriously considered but care
fully mapped out.
1t is timely to recall that the object of these
studies was to prepare the American negotia-
tors for the decisions that are or should be
in the making right now Specifically it was
to examine each settlement in the light Of
American interests and as it was likely to
contribute to a workable and durable peace.
The work was well conceived, and in the
opinion of those who could compare the two,
it seemed more thorough and practical than
the preparations for the Paris conference of
1919.
Apparently the bIueprints representing the
American plan for peace have been thrown
into the discard along with European dreams
of Danubian federation. Probably they do not
jibe with Russian plans; certainly, they were
built on the premise that the ideas of the
victors would be more ir harmony than events
have proved them to be. It looks now as if
the Soviet government opposed any other plan
because it has its own scheme for organizing
the Danube area and is proceeding with dis
patch and without consultation to put it into
effect.
The two trade agreements signed in Moscow
over the weekend, one with Czechoslovakia,
the other with Poland, follow closely on the
arrangement made last week with Hungary.
They round out series of similar deals,
concluded since the war ended, with Rumania,
Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. delegation from
Finland is signing up in the Soviet capital
this week. All are either saort-range barter
deals, running for twelve months, or long
term agreements giving Russia monopoly
rights in joint-stock companies for the ex-
ploitation of natural resources on the model
of the Russo-Iran oil pact.
Austria is baking at the terms offered, but
eventually she will have to submit. All the
Danubian countries are in desperate straits.
In this protracted twilight between peace and
war; when normal trade is blocked and the
struggle to keep alive is almost hopeless, they
have no choice but to take what they can
get Russia is carving out her own trade area
in much the same way that Germany did in
the years before the war, and in precisely the
same region. If Moscow proposes to move the
frontier OF Bessaraba. the province recon-
quered from Rumana, to take in the mouth
of the Danube and thereby control the outlet
of that international waterway, this step would
be logical corollary of the plan to create
Soviet Union.
| All the Danubian states manufacture far
more con5umer goods than Russia. Obviously
the Soviet Union has much to gain by adding
this populous, resourceful and more advanced
area to her economic sphere.
| Obviously, too, the western powers cannot
be Indifferent to the fate of Danubia. Inter-
national control of the Danube was set up in
the Treaty of Paris Of 1856 and renewed in
1921 in accordance with the convention of
Barcelona defining the regime of aavigable
waterways of international concern This
convention is still in force, and President Tru-
man at Potsdam pressed for Big Three agree
ment on the naturalization of all such
waterways. He was thinking particularly of
/ tho Danube, for this is not only river but
system, controlling factor in the life of
EUROPE. Unless it is open to free traffic and
world trade, Europe will be incurably
crippled. Today more than ever it is the key
question in the treaties the Foreign Ministers
will discuss in Paris.--New York Times.