NEAR EAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 January 1940, Page 5

NEAR EAST

POWERFUL ALLIED ARMIES ASSEMBLING

SUFFICIENT TO DEAL WITH ANY EVENTUALITY.

GERMAN AND ITALIAN PRESS ATTACKS TURKEY.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, January 30.

A semi-official statement in Paris confirms that England and France are both building up powerful armies in the Near East for the purpose of fulfilling their obligations to Turkey, Greece and Rumania. The statement says: “The Allies will have in the Near East sufficient men to deal with any eventuality.” "The Times,” London, states that the Russians are extending strategic railways along the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Iran frontiers and are proposing to build a road from Stalingrad (in the Lower Volga area) through the north Caucasus to the Rumanian border. A message from Zurich says that the German Press is systematically attacking Turkey. “Der Montag” declares that what happened to Poland will be Turkey’s fate. It alleges that the Allies are trying to make a Dardanelles problem, similar to that of the Polish Corridor, thus embroiling Turkey and Russia. The visit to Turkey by General Weygand. French leader of the Allied Forces in the Near East, is directed to this end. ■ The Italian Press echoes the German attempts to isolate Turkey and thereby cause disunity in the Balkan Entente. '“Giornale d’ltalia" says: "The Anglo-Turkish pact has detached Turkey from her traditional Balkan line and has created a fear that Turkey now expresses Allied aspirations and is no longer a faithful element in the Balkan;’. States' neutral understanding."