Eighty years ago, the Axis indulges in a naked power play in the Balkans as the British brandish moral outrage over the Channel

Hard on the heels of being forced by Stalin to disgorge its First World War gains at Russian expense, Rumania found itself on the receiving end of Nazi and Fascist diplomacy in the Balkans. With the campaign in the West satisfactorily concluded, Germany and Italy could devote their attentions to the region, where there was little to hold back the dictatorships. Like Czechoslovakia and Poland before it, Rumania found that British (it was no longer meaningful to talk of Franco-British) guarantees were of little consequence in the new world. The only consolation (if that is the correct term) for the Rumanian leaders is that they were invited to Austria to meet Hitler and Ribbentrop. Much as though newly hired domestic servants, their duties were explained to them. They were to arrange that the territorial claims of their neighbours Hungary and Bulgaria, who had shown far less inclination to play the dupes of London and Paris, were to be met promptly. The chances of Rumania drifting into