EYES ON BALKANS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 116, 15 April 1940, Page 8

EYES ON BALKANS

HUNGARIANS ANXIOUS. SMALL STATES "WORRIED. LONDON, April 14. The Observer’s Budapest correspondent says that a German invasion o( Hungary would surprise nobody. Nazi forces arc reported to be in complete preparedness on the Hungarian-Slovak border. Three weeks’ persistent German dissemination of rumours has badly shaken public morale in SouthEastern Europe. Grave disquiet is growing in Yugoslavia, where a renewed declaration of Italian neutrality is anxiously awaited, the correspondent adds. Bucharest reports that Germans in Bukowina are buying up foodstuffs, timber, and cereals regardless of the prices. The Rutlienians have evacuated civilians and removed all cattle and foodstuffs their side of the frontier to a depth of six miles. Rumania is reported to have posted several hundred extra guards along the Danube. A message from Sofia says that documents of considerable importance are believed to have been stolen from the home of the Yugoslav military attache. The Rome correspondent of the New York Times says that Italian correspondents at Sofia and Bucharest express anxiety there ■ over a rumouicd Russian move against Rumania. TRADE ON THE DANUBE. The Rome radio says that Germany and Hungary have reached an agreement for the protection of German transports on the Danube. Hungaiv is operating a large number of gunboats. The Black Sea round Varna (Bulgaria) lias been mined. Russian tankers carryin" oil to Germany pass this area. The radio adds that an unnamed country was responsible for the mining. The Belgrade correspondent of the New York Times says that on tile highest authority Yugoslavia has requested Germany to refrain at least temporarily from building up her Adriatic trade, pointing out it is likely to irritate the constantly stiffening British blockade thereabouts. The same authority believes it is possible that Italv has made a similar request to Germany. At present nearly 30 German merchantmen are tied up at T rieste, while 76 000 tons of bauxite are piled up at Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia). Recently the German freighter Ankara completed the shipment of 4000 tons. A Budapest message says that rationing will lie introduced for the first time to-morrow. Sugar and fats are particularly affected. The reason is believed to bo the unfavourable crops and Hungary’s determination to maintain her international obligations, especially those to Germany. ALLIED - FORCES. ASSEMBLING AT ALEPPO. NEW YORK, April 14. The Rome correspondent of the New York Times says that advices reaching Syrian circles here indicate that General Weygand’s French army leftDamascus on Sunday, April t , and is assembling at Aleppo (Syria), while contingents of General Wavell’s British army have gone also.