Foreign News: Outlook Bad

The outlook from Hitler’s Berghof eyrie was not good. “We National Socialists,” he had written 20 years ago, “terminate the endless German drive to the south and west of Europe, and direct our gaze towards the lands in the east.” Last week the Nazi satellites and the Nazi-occupied lands of the east were in turmoil.

Finns Bow. For a fortnight the Finns had queued up before Government Alko-holiliike (liquor stores), which had suddenly opened after a long shutdown. They had drunk toasts to peace. Then, at last, under the eye of old Baron Carl Mannerheim, Prime Minister Antti Hackzell broadcast Nazi weakness to all the world: “It is not possible for Germany to give us sufficient help to stay in the war.”

This week Moscow and Helsinki agreed to an armistice. On the Finnish front firing ceased. The Russians had insisted on the withdrawal, disarming and internment of all German troops in Finland by Sept. 15. If the Finns could not do the job alone, the Red Army would help.

Czechs Arise. Slovakia was in revolt. The Berlin radio sputtered: “Soviet parachutists, saboteurs . . . Slav murderers and bandits. . . . We shall exact two thousandfold revenge. . . .” Screamed Dictator Father Joseph Tiso: “Slovakians! Give up your arms. If we keep order we shall not be occupied.”

But clearer rang another call across the mountains and valleys. Over the radio from London came the voice of Jan Masaryk, son of the nation’s founder:

“Czechoslovaks! Arise! Remember Lidice! . . .”

Magyars Seethe. Across the border Hungary also seethed. To Budapest hurried the Führer’s trouble-shooting Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. Old Regent Admiral Nicholas Horthy listened to the emissary from the north. Then, under his strong hand, a cabinet of Magyar generals took over. Warned the new Premier. Colonel General Vitez Geza Lakatos: “Hungarians! We must defend our own frontiers. . . . We must no longer think, ‘You can trust the Germans to pull it off. . . .’ ”

Rumanians Wheedle. In Bucharest, the people cheered dusty Red Army tankmen. Where the swastika had flown, placards shouted: “Long live Stalin!”

It was only four years since Hitler had ordered Rumania to disgorge her World War I gains—north Transylvania to the Magyars, south Dobruja to the Bulgars. Now in the Kremlin the Royalist-Communist delegates of young King Mihai studied armistice terms, begged humbly at the Russian table for territorial crumbs.

Bulgars Squirm. The Bulgars had asked the Anglo-Americans for terms—terms that would let them remain neutral, keep their German-given gains in Greece and Yugoslavia, protect German soldiers and weapons still in Bulgaria. But Moscow growled: “Bulgarian ruse . . . false maneuvers . . . subterfuge and secret connivance with the Germans! . . .” Down crashed the government of artful Prime Minister Ivan Bagrianoff. To the helm in Sofia went a Russophile cabinet headed by a leftist Peasant leader, Constantine Muraviev.

In Cairo, a Bulgarian armistice mission waited. The Prussians of the Balkans might soon declare war on the Prussians of the North.

The outlook from the Berghof was not good.