TROOPS MOBILIZE ON FRONTIER

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 9

TROOPS MOBILIZE ON FRONTIER

Rumania Prepares For Sudden Attack

GERMAN FORCES ON THE MOVE

Call To Volunteers For

Service

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received March 20,11.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 20. While political circles here discuss the possible attitude of the various countries in the event of a German invasion of Rumania, following the ultimatum reported to have been delivered yesterday, Bucharest messages state that 200,000 Rumanian troops are mobilized in blockhouses and dugouts along the Hungarian frontier awaiting Germany’s next move. King Carol has decided to take just sufficient military, measures to prevent a sudden smash-and-grab raid in the north.. Reports from the north also say that Russia is moving large numbers of troops to the Rumanian border where fortifications are being rapidly constructed. The Bucharest correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company says that the majority of the German troops who were quartered in Prague left the city rapidly and are moving eastward. The disarmed Czech army is rigorously confined to barracks. Prague reports that all Germans in the protectorate are asked to volunteer for army service. They are offered compensatory exemption from the “volunteer” labour service. If the appeal does not succeed, it is understood that all Germans aged between 20 and 40 will be called up. This is expected to produce 400,000 men who will be equipped with Czech arms with which most of them have been trained. • The situation regarding Rumania still awaits clarification. Yesterday the British Minister in Bucharest was informed by the Rumanian Foreign Minister that reports of the German ultimatum were inaccurate. The ultimatum is also denied by the German news agency in London.

As is known, the Rumanian Government is engaged in commercial negotiations with representatives of the German Government in Bucharest. Pending a statement on behalf of the Rumanian Government following these negotiations, comment on Rumania’s attitude toward the crisis is regarded here as premature.

Meanwhile, though speculation continues as regards Rumania, the “Daily Telegraph’’ learns that Turkey definitely does not desire a common frontier with Germany, and is prepared to resist German occupation of the shores of the Black Sea.

Turkey, however, does not believe that such an invasion is imminent, as Herr Hitler must protect his flanks before he makes such a move. This involves the practical absorption of Hungary, which step, even with the consent of the Hungarian Nazis, further complicates the position of Italy in the Rome-Berlin axis.

“The Times,” commenting on the situation, says that the Germans are misreading the signs of the times when they attribute the present collapse of international confidence to the other nations’ Machiavellian calculations and hidden motives for aggression. The seizure of Czechoslovakia, says the paper, is the sole cause for despair of a peaceful settlement, which, with its accompanying maltreatment is more disastrous because the perpetrator was one of four who undertook to preserve Czechslovakia in its new form. Europe is driven back upon stark force. Nothing else counts. It was not a happy moment for Herr Hitler to offer a guarantee to Rumania in exchange for all her produce. She instantly manned her frontiers. All the smaller countries fear German protection. The suppression of Bohemia’s liberties is a crime. Germany totally misunderstands the British, American, Trench and Russian refusal to recognize it as expansion. National Socialism means tyranny, cruelty, and paganizm. The reaction to such a move is spontaneous. Britain has opposed encircling Germany, but Germany’s methods have made encirclement inevitable. POLAND TO MAINTAIN INDEPENDENCE WARSAW, March 19. President Moscicki, broadcasting from a sick bed on the birthday of Marshall Pilsudski, emphasized Poland’s military pride and swore to maintain her independence and not to entrust her future to anybody’s protection. He extolled Marshal Pilsudski as the liberator of Poland. The frontier forces are being augmented.