761.71/180: Telegram
The Minister in Rumania (Gunther) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 3—7:35 a.m.]
58. I am reliably informed that the German Legation is making arrangements for the transfer of population of about 12 German villages in Southern Bessarabia. The reason alleged is the poor economic [Page 459] condition into which they have been forced by the boycott of Jewish-controlled commerce in that area. However, it is noteworthy that wherever Russian influence becomes predominant the German population has been [evacuated] and this may possibly indicate German expectation of Russian entry into Bessarabia. No effort is being made so far to move the Germans from Transylvania.
[For information concerning the removal of Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin as Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union because of his alleged failure to prevent the Anglo-French-Turkish treaty of October 19, 1939, and the presumed reorientation of Turkish policy away from the Soviet Union, see telegrams No. 228, March 1, 4 p.m., and No. 246, March 6, noon, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, volume III, page 186.]