Flip-Flop

Rumania flip-flopped last week out of the war on the German side into the war on the Allied side. Rumors of Rumanian peace feelers and talks with the Russians and British had buzzed around for months. But the Red Army's mighty shove (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS) shook the royal palace, jolted young King Mihai and his aging aide-de-camp, General Constantin Sanatescu, into the realization that it was time to stop buzzing and do something. Young Mihai reached first for his Tommy gun, then for a microphone.

To Rumanians he broadcast:

"A new Government of National Union has been entrusted with the task of ... concluding peace with the United Nations. Rumania has accepted an armistice offered by the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States. From this moment all hostilities and other activities against the Soviet armies as well as the state of war with Great Britain and the United States cease. . . ."

The new "Government of National Union" included nine generals, one admiral, six civilians. Among them were representatives of Rumania's major parties: Juliu Maniu (Peasant Party), Dinu Bratianu (Liberal), Constantin Petrescu (Social Democrat), Lucretiu Patrascanu (Communist).

Promptly Moscow warned the new Government: "The help of the Rumanian Army to the Red Army in the liquidation of German troops is the only means of speedily . . . concluding an armistice between Rumania and the Allies."

Promptly the new Rumanian Government declared war on Germany. The Berlin radio snarled: "Perfidy." The Wehrmacht angrily attacked Bucharest; at week's end, said Nazi sources, the capital was ringed and cut off from the rest of the country.

Among the "unconditional surrender" conditions which the Allies were reported ready to grant Rumania were: independence, recognition of Mihai as King, a return of the big slice of Transylvania which Hitler handed over to Hungary in 1940. Rumanian troops were already battling Hungarian troops for Transylvania.

Young Mihai's Tommy gun nearly jammed on him. In the hustle & bustle of flip-flopping, General Antonescu was reported to have tried to make peace with the Allies first. Mihai beat his former dictator to the decision and the microphone by little more than the length of his Hohenzollern nose.

Rumania's bolt from the losing side jolted other satellite fence-sitters: P:Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Parvan Draganov publicly repeated Premier Ivan Bagrianoffs recent peace bid (TIME, Aug. 28). Through emissaries in Istanbul, Sofia notified London and Washington that it was ready to surrender. Probable terms: withdrawal of Bulgarian troops in Greece and Yugoslavia, disarming of the few German troops still in Bulgaria. P:Hungary's astute Regent, Admiral Nicholas Horthy, dissolved all political parties (the only undissolved parties in Hungary are pro-Nazi), called an emergency cabinet meeting, received an emergency visitor from the Reich, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

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