Hands Across the Danube

Galatz, Rumania sits at the top of the Danube delta surrounded by fens teeming with mosquitoes, waterfowl and half-wild swine, its docks crowded with fat tankers and chunky grain boats. And Galatz was the scene last week of one of the most remarkable conferences since war began. It was not particularly surprising that the European Danube Commission should meet, as it has periodically since it was set up by the Treaty of Paris in 1856, to discuss navigation maintenance on the lower part of the internationalized river. But what made last week's meeting remarkable was its atmosphere of mysterious amity. Opening the sessions, its German chairman, Dr. Georg Martius, warmly clasped hands with not only Italian and Rumanian representatives, but also British and French. The cheerful group then shut themselves behind locked doors, and talked their problems over. When they came out, they handed reporters a communique all about their "spirit of reciprocal understanding and cooperation"--but not a word about who will get first pickings on transit of Rumanian oil, Hungarian wheat, Yugoslav fruits, Bulgarian tobacco.

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