Daily Post - 17.10.1943, Blaðsíða 2

2
SUNDAY FOS'i
Rieh Resonrees
— Poor Rulers
by Raymond Moley
SUNDAY POST
Blaðahringurlnn.
la publlshed by
Editor: S. Benediktsson.
OfflM: 12, Austurstræti. Tel.
8718. Reykjavík. Printed by
AlbýfJuprentamiö J an Ltd.
Sunday, Oct. 17, 1943
A Year og
Decision
BOSTON: — 1943 will be a
year of decision, Robert P. Patt-
erson, undersecretary of war
told the American Federation
of Labor convention, but he hast
ened to add he was not predict-
ing the end of the war. We have
made our preparation and we
have won the preliminary vict-
ories, he said. Now our soldiers
are ready for the hard test of
strength. They intend to deliver
massive blows against the
, enemy. We can be sure that the
blows struck in 1943 will deter-
mine the outcome of the war.
Earlier, William Green, AFL
president, told the convention
that the United States must
abandon isolation. Tne war has
taught us that America cannot
isolate herself from the rest of
the world; — peaceful intenti-
ons are not enough, he stated.
Green said business leaders
must be prepared after the war
to reconvert their plants almost
overnight and take the responsi
bility for investing the necess-
ary funds.
* * *
WASHINGTON: — A new
revenue bill which would cut
income tax exemptions and in-
crease the federal withholding
tax was sent to Congress by
Secretary of the Treasury
Henry Morgenthau. The meas-
ure is designed to produce an
additional 10 billion 500 million
dollars in wartime taxes. The
bill calls for the lowering of
income tax exempitions to 1
thousand 1 hundred dollars for
married persons and 300 dollars
fdr each dependent. The 5
hundred dollar exemption for
single persons is unchanged.
The bill also provides for in-
creasing the 20 percent withold-
ing levy on taxable income to
30 percent. Stiff tax increases
on liquor, beer, tobacco, rail-
road fares, soft drinks, chewing
gum and all other luxury items
are proposed in the bill.
The importance of United
Nations’ attacks on the oil fields
of Rumania underlines a special
distinction of that sinister
country. The richness of its
resources is exceeded only by
the worthlessness of its rulers.
Perhaps these two things
have something to do with each
other. Rumania has what it
takes to make war—plenty of
it—and in a war-ridden Europe
it has been the scene of dark
intrigue and brutal oppression.
For Hitler it provided a mobil-
ization ground for his attack
upon Russia. It has also pro-
vided him with the oil and
wheat without which he might
never have dared to go to war.
In 1938 Hitler made a most
unusual agreement with Rum-
ania. He leased its most import-
ant oil fields and, at the same
time, arranged for a series of
“working camps” for German
engineers and laborers all over
the country. This amounted to
the economic occupation of an
independent counfry in time of
peace. Then, by way of mani-
festing authentic Hitlerian grat-
itude, he sliced off pieces of his
ally to buy two other allies—
Hungary and Bulgaria. Later,
after invading Russia, he comp-
enstated Rumania with a piece
of Russia.
Eeach year Hitler has taken
more and more oil from Rum-
ania, ranging from something
over a million tons the first
year to five million tons in
1942. Antonescu, “dictator” and
“field marshal” by grace of
Hitler, has piled up the money
acquired from the oil leases in
the Berlin Reichsbank, and his
economists have already made
learned plans for spending it.
He has shrewdly augmented
this sum, moreover, by levying
a “tax,” amounting in some
cases to 100 per cent, on petrol-
eum products bought by Ger-
many. It should be added that
Antonescu, according to good
reports, has also tucked away
a tidy personal fortune for him-
self.
The rise of a bandit like Ant-
onescu was made possible by
the progressive deterioration of
the legitimate ruling family.
Rumania achieved fqll inde-
pendence by 1880, as the result
of the Russo-Turkish war and
the Congress of Berlin. Ger-
many, the traditional spawning
ground of European rulers,
chipped in a Hohenzollern
prince, Carol, who became the
first king. The tradition of
feminine influence in Rumania
was established by Carol’s wife,
Carmen Sylva. Both had a
bent for atrocites. Hers ex-
pressed itself in corny German
verses; his, in savage anti-
Semitic laws. Next came the
warlike Ferdinand and his
pulchritudinous wife, Marie.
Then came Carol II, and, after
his flight with Lupescu, the
neglected wife, Helen, and the
boy-king, Michael, became the
absurd facade for Antonescu’s
blood-and-boodle shop.
At this point it may be asked
of Guglielmo Ferrero and
Walter Lippmann, who have
held the way to stabilize Europe
is to dig up “legitimate” rulers,
how they would use the sorry
royalty of Rumania.
Antonescu, of course, cannot
survive the collapse of liis
country which may not be far
off. Incessant troubles with his
“ally” Hungary, have actually
required mobilization against
that country. Guns never rest in
the mountain forests of Sieben-
burgen. Antonescu’s troops in
Russia have been riddled with
mutinies. Finally, when Hitler
recently said that if Rumanian
troops would not fight Russians
they might at least replace
Italian garrisons in Yugolavia
and Greece, Antonescu had to
reply that this demand was
impossible.
* * *
After victory, Russia will
doubtless have some very de-
finite ideas with respect to
Rumania. It is not likely that,
beyond recovering Bessarabia,
Stalin would care to introduce
an indigestible lump like Ru-
mania into the U.S.S.R. But
he would have justice as
well as the tradition of his
hero, Peter the Great, on
his side if he determinded that
never again would Rumania
and Bulgaria provide the means
to attack Russia’s underside
through the Black Sea. Peter
wanted security in the Black
Sea and he labored as a carp-
enter with his men to build a
fleet for that purpose. He also
wanted the Bosporus, but
European diplomacy never per-
mitted Russia to get it. With
the emergence of air power a
practical substitute might be
found, however.
The Axis, partly by sneaking:
small ships through the Bos-
porus and partly by assembling
ships at Bulgarian and Rum-
anian ports, put threatening:
naval strength into the Black
Sea. Russia may demand cont-
rol of that menacing coast and
of the air and naval bases upon
it. She may well feel herself
entitled to that security.
Dealing with Rumania should
be no sentimental matter. It has
been ruled by crooks and
weaklings so long that it lias
become a dangerous cesspool. It
should get no suspended sent-
ence.
Quotations. . .
Oddities
“Our first duty is to give our
best effort to destroy a Fascist
system that is trying, without
success, to make of Europe and
Asia and our own home, a
world of silent people.“ — John
G. Winant, U. S. Ambassador to
Great Britain, in a speech at
Durham, England, June 6. 1942,
* *
RIGHT ANSWER
A farmer in occupied terri-
tory was working in his field as
two Nazis swaggered by.
“Go ahead and sow,” scoffed
the Nazis, “we’ll do the reap-
ing.”
“I hope so,” replied the farm-
er. “I’m sowing hemp.”
* * *
A string of glass yarn is used
with the box kite that carries
aloft the antenna of the port-
able, hand-generator radio
transmitter developed by the U.
S. Army Air Forces to summon
help for fliers forced down at
sea.
* * *
Peastime bus, railroad and
automobile cushions and simil-
ar products made of foam rubb-
er are helping protect seaplanes:
and flying boats from damage'
inrough waters at bases and
harbors all over the world.