Fuhrer to Fuhrer

On the continent of Europe last week, save Sweden's Gustaf, there was only one King who could call his crown his own. This was Boris III of Bulgaria. And among Europe's hurrying traders in sovereignty, this sovereign's was perhaps the most ticklish predicament of all, his footwork perhaps the neatest.

Until the spring of 1934, Boris was just another playful Balkan monarch. He liked most of all the boyish pastime of playing with railroad trains -- real ones. His royal hobby became so famous that Yugoslav engineers named him Locomotive Fuehrer Honoris Causa. Then in 1934 the Bulgarian Army abolished Parliament and established Boris as the somewhat bewildered figurehead of a military dictatorship. Boris buckled down to serious work and within a year made it just plain dictatorship, with the Army very much in the background. He had married Princess Giovanna, daughter of Italy's King Vittorio Emanuele III, and has carefully borne in mind the example of his powerless father-in-law.

Last week Balkan statesmen were again getting the call from the Nazis, and Locomotive Fuehrer went to see Nazidom's Fuehrer. The conference took place secretly in Berlin. Afterwards only terse communiques took note of the visit, and all the world took it for granted that Bulgaria would soon join the scramble for the Axis bandwagon. But a whole week passed by, and Bulgaria did not sign. Boris had weighed the odds and come to a pretty solution--for the time being.

In Bulgaria there has always been real historic, linguistic and social sympathy for Russia, which not even the advent of Communism broke. Russia's entry into Poland was hailed as the beginning of Slavic self-determination. Bulgaria sent thanks to Moscow after she got Southern Dobruja from Rumania.

Since the collapse of major democratic influence in the Balkans, Bulgaria's alternative star had become the Axis. If heart dictated Moscow, head dictated Rome-Berlin. Bulgaria's is an agrarian economy --more than 80% of the 6,000,000 population is dependent on agriculture, compared with 3 1/2% in all industries. Hungry Germany takes a large majority of Bulgarian produce, and supplies Bulgaria with the finished goods she needs. Furthermore the Axis was eager to press on Bulgaria's behalf her revisionist claims--a corridor to the Aegean through Greece, part of Macedonia from Yugoslavia, bits of Thrace from Turkey.

There was no question that the pull towards the Axis was greatest. But Boris would like to keep Bulgaria Bulgarian, and a crown on his head, as long as possible. He told Adolf Hitler that he was interested, but that he could not officially join the Axis until Russia did--or at least until Russia openly approved Bulgaria's doing so. This answer was a shrewd one. Boris could see the weaknesses in the Russian-German mariage de convenance; he could also see its urgency from the German point of view. He played urgency against weakness. Meantime, the Bulgarian puppet Senate sent 6,000 kilos of cigarets to the German Army, probably the world's most magnificent gift of political tobacco.

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