MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON THE abandonment of Germany by Rumania and Bulgaria has I not aroused in this country the interest which might have been expected. To a large extent the news was overshadowed by the drama of the liberation of France and by the tense anxiety created by the battles of the barricades in Paris. It is a curious reflection that only three generations ago the news that Russia had crossed the Prnth, captured Ismail, -reached the mouths of the Danube and occupied the Principalities would have induced many elderly gentle- men to rush along Pall Mall shaking firsts and umbrellas in the air. The Eastern question today is no longer a live national issue, and the very place-names which caused the hearts of our grand- fathers to miss several beats are now well outside the boundaries of our political awareness. It seems strange, none the less, that the British public, recalling how in 1918 the defection of Bulgaria was the prelude to the final victory, realising the immense strategic, economic, political and moral implications of these Balkan sur- renders, should not have seen in this collapse a portent more tremendous even than the defeat of the German armies between the Ome and the Seine. The defences of the Festung Europa, which had already been pierced in the north-west, the south-west, the south, the north-east and the east, have now crumbled in the south- east as well. The civilians and the soldiers of Germany have been assured that if only they can hang on till October then the advent of newer and more secret weapons will give them victory over all their enemies. But even Dr. Goebbels will find it difficult to per- suade them that the faith of the satellite Governments in the efficacy of these weapons is as bright or as constant as might be wished. The Germans have an infinite capacity for believing in miracles; but the defection of the two Balkan satellites will expose even their credulity to a serious strain.
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