740.0011 European War 1939/6390: Telegram
The Minister in Rumania (Gunther) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:44 p.m.]
696. My 685, October 30, 11 p.m.37 I have discussed the Russian position in some detail with General Antonescu. He was not apprehensive of immediate Russian action directed against Rumania and is disposed to place his reliance possibly too much so on the German guarantee. He said that according to his military information there were no movements of Russian troops worth mentioning except some in the northern Bukowina. He added that the question of the islands just above Ismail which the Russians want was under negotiation as well as the eventual sovereignty of other small islands near the northern mouth of the Danube.38
I asked the General what was his interpretation of the evacuation even from unoccupied Bukowina and Dobrudja of all Germans. He replied that it was to fill with German agriculturists the parts of former Poland left empty now owing to its present shrunken state and the segregation of ethnic Poles therein. It would seem clear that he has had this from a German source.