NEWS OF THE WEEK
NEGOTIATIONS aiming at the construction of a Peace Front in Europe have been progressing in London, Moscow and Paris, but little indication has been given of the results achieved. There can be no doubt that the con- versations in London with the Rumanian Foreign Minister, M. Gafencu (who had just come through an interview with Herr Hitler unscathed), have been highly satisfactory. We have given Rumania our guarantee, we are negotiating a trade agreement with her, and her part is to do what is possible to facilitate a general defence agreement in Eastern Europe between herself, Russia, Poland and the Balkan Entente States. The achievement of that depends on the Russo-British discussions at Moscow, which develop slowly but hopefully, but will hardly come to fruition till the return of the Vice-Commissar for Foreign Affairs, . M Potemkin, from Ankara, where he is in contact with the Turkish Presi- dent and Foreign Minister, If Yugoslavia is forced definitely into the Axis _group, and Bulgaria refuses collaboration with Rumania and Greece, the hope of a united peace front in- cluding the Balkan States will be shattered, and the Balkan peninsula may once more be the danger-point of Europe. But Russia, Poland, Rumania and Turkey, if they succeed in reaching a firm agreement (which would mean the abandonment of suspicions of Russia by Rumania and Poland), will be a very formidable combination, particularly with such naval support as Britain and France could provide.
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