Honey for the Bear

Russian diplomatic efficiency last week produced two extra dividends:

P: Through the Rumanian armistice, the Russians had effective control of the last important petroleum deposit* in Europe outside the Caucasian fields, which they owned already. (Earlier the Red Army had reconquered the Drohobycz oilfield, which was one of the fruits of the 1939 German-Russian partition of Poland.) Twelve percent of the Rumanian oil is owned by the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey.

P: Through the Finnish armistice, Russia got possession of the only important source of armor-hardening nickel in Europe, outside the U.S.S.R. Most Finnish nickel mines were leased to Canada's International Nickel Co., most of whose capital comes from the U.S.

*Great Britain last week announced that she had developed in secret an oilfield now yielding 100,000 tons a year. A sizable drop in the bucket for Britain, the oil was described as of more strategic than commercial value.

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