A Contention Ended The announcement that the Soviet Union has
formally recognised Rumania's sovereignty over the province of Bessarabia will inevitably make a deep impression on the Little Entente delegates now in conference at Belgrade. (An article on the conference appears on a later page.) For dis- sension over Bessarabia has clouded Russo-Rumanian relations ever since the Great War ended. Not many areas in Europe have changed hands so often in the last century and a quarter. Sovereignty over it was vigorously contested between Russians and Turks down to 1812, when Russia definitely annexed it, only to lose it in 1856, after the Crimean War. In i878 she regained most of it, but in 1918 the province (which had a year earlier elected to be a democratic republic within the Soviet Union) first declared itself independent and then agreed to annexation to Rumania. That arrangement Russia has till today resolutely refused to recognise. Her new attitude is no doubt due largely to Czechoslovakian, and in a lesser degree to French, influence. All obstacles to the complete co-operation between Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Russia are now removed, and appreciation of Moscow's action should tend to weaken Nazi influence in Rumania considerably. Germany is likely to view the concession with disfavour, but it unquestionably strengthens the prospects of peace in south-eastern Europe, for none of the States concerned can be suspected of any aggressive designs.
