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Instead, Carol and Mihai showed up near Vrsac, a Yugoslav town close to the Rumanian border, which is noted for its good wines and hunting. There, they were met by the polished, cultured, Oxford-educated, pro-Ally Prince Paul, Senior Regent of Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav Premier, Dragisha Cvetkovitch. Of all Rumania's Balkan neighbors, Yugoslavia is its only real friend (Rumania annexed territory from the others after World War I). Rumania and Yugoslavia, once members of the French-inspired Little Entente, are now members of the Balkan Entente, which is scheduled to meet at Belgrade next month. Dictator Benito Mussolini is trying to line up Yugoslavia with Italy and Hungary in a pro-Italian, anti-Soviet group.
Knowing that the other Balkans will not care to help Rumania defend herself from Russia, Carol had good cause to consult Prince Paul for help. Though little news of it leaked, his Government was just as frantically reinforcing its frontiers as the Belgians and the Dutch. Thousands of reservists called to the colors completely overtaxed the capacity of the Rumanian railroad system. Not only was there no standing room in railway cars, men clung on the outside steps in below-zero weather. Some of them grew numb and were found in the morning dead along the right of way.
Even the Hungarians, who are thinking about a new military alliance with Italy, got the wind up. After all, Hungary now has a common frontier with Soviet Russia and Italy is far away. In Moscow, according to the official Soviet news agency Tass, Hungarian Minister Dr. Joseph Kristoffy called on Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vladimir Potemkin and formally denied "tendentious rumors" that the recent Italian-Hungarian talks in Venice were "directed against the Soviet Union." Since these "rumors" had originated in Hungarian official circles in Buda pest, the incident showed that Hungary too was frightened by the crisis.
New Fronts? Thus Europe's chill winds seemed to blow war nearer on three fronts. The Balkans appeared, in spite of their fright, to have some guarantee of peace in Germany's desire to keep Rumania at peace and Russia's preoccupation in the north. In fact, the crisis on the three fronts interlocked, for if the war in the north is kept limited, Russia may feel free to attack the Balkans. In reverse, if Norway and Sweden are drawn into war with Russia, thereby cutting off Germany's much-needed supplies, Germany might feel forced to make a new attack in the west —especially if Great Britain and France were allied with the Scandinavian countries. It was by no means certain that any of the neutrals would be sucked into the war. But last week's crisis showed that it was possible for World War II to spread over more of Europe than World War I ever reached.