THE BALKANS: Crime & Punishment

For the first time this year Bulgaria’s firing squads had nothing to do. The People’s Courts had run through their docket of war criminal trials. Score: 2,007 death sentences, 1,986 executions. (The 21 condemned persons who had not been shot could not be found.) Another 3,064 prisoners were jailed for terms from a year to life. Among them: famed Liberal Konstantin Muravieff.

Meanwhile Rumania’s firing squads were oiling their rifles. The War Crimes Courts started with the first batch of 25 high Rumanian officers and officials. It was headed by ex-Premier General Constantin Sanatescu, formerly King Mihai’s aide-de-camp. On the night of the coup d’état which overthrew the pro-Axis Government, General Sanatescu helped the King imprison Dictator Ion Antonescu in a vault built for ex-King Carol’s stamp collection. Later, Sanatescu formed the first pro-Allied Government.

Last week Tass, official Soviet news agency, reported that Peter Grozja, Russia’s puppet Premier of Rumania, had called for the formation of a Soviet-sponsored league of Danubian states (presumably Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia).