BALKAN SOLIDARITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1940, Page 5

BALKAN SOLIDARITY

PROGRAMME OF ECONOMIC COLLABORATION

OFFER-TO BULGARIA & HUNGARY SOME TALK OF TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, February 5. The initiation of a programme of economic collaboration and direct invitations to Bulgaria and Hungary to co-operate with the Entente are the most concrete results of the Balkan Entente conference.

Observers say that economic experts will meet shortly to discuss an adjustment of imports and exports to belligerents to avoid accusations of favouritism.

The Belgrade correspondent of “The Times’’ says that the meeting ended with an achievement of Balkan solidar-ity-far exceeding the conventional platitudes of common policies of neutrality. The offer to Bulgaria and Hungary is at once an invitation and a challege to tliem to demonstrate their goodwill.

Au earlier message stated that the discreet announcements of the deliberations indicate at least a temporary triumph of the German-Italian efforts to keep the Balkans politically disunited, but signs are not lacking tnat greater co-operation will develop, beginning with trade collaboration.

The Turkish envoy, M. Saracoglu, made the most significant declaration that Bulgaria will not raise revisionist claims during the present complicated situation.

FRONTIER CHARGES FORECAST. Observers forecast the cession, not only of Rumanian territory, but an arrangement between Turkey and Greece fulfilling the Bulgarian desire for access to the Aegean Sea. M. Saracoglu is to confer with M. Kiosseivanov, the Bulgarian Premier, while en route to Turkey. Bulgaria is joining in a new drive for closer Balkan economic relations.

A Bulgarian trade delegation will visit Belgrade on February 11, and a Yugoslav delegation will visit Sofia on February 17. These negotiations, it is believed, will link Bulgaria with the Balkan Marketing Board, which is the most concrete proposal from the Entente meeting. The MarketingBoard would encourage trade between the Balkan States and offer a united front to demands from the belligerents for an “un-neutral” economic policy. Yugoslavia has postponed her acceptance of the invitation to send a trade delegation to Germany. It is believed that the Entente will proclaim an opportune moment for ihe settlement of political problems which have not yet arisen. All the Balkan States are united in the desire to maintain peace and neutrality in the Balkan and Danubian States. Each member is free to pursue its own interpretation of neutrality and to make bilateral agreements with non-mem-bers. PEACEFUL POLICY. The Yugoslav envoy, M. Markovitch, addressing an Entente banquet, said: “The members of the Entente are completely neutral, provided their integrity and independence are respected. The Balkans are threatened by nobody. The attitude of Bulgaria and Hungary conforms with the peaceful policy of the Entente.

“We hope, therefore, that economic collaboration between the Balkan countries will develop so that we can more easily resist the pressure'of the present time.” Dr. Gafencu (Rumania) said; “It is Rumania's belief that the Bulgarian and Hungarian demands can be settled by a suitable form of regional agreement. Bulgaria’s desire to respect the interests of the Balkan community brings nearer the time when the regulation of all relations between the Balkan States will be possible. All the rumours that the Entente is directed against certain neighbouring States are false.”

It is persistently reported in Bucharest that Rumania is prepared to cede a strip of territory to Bulgaria, including a score of purely Bulgarian villages, if possible without raising other revisionist demands.

Dr. Gafencu has gone to Bucharest. M. Saracoglu, General Metaxas (Greece), and Dr. Markovitch are the guests of the Yugoslavian Prime Minister, Ivf. Tsvetkovitch on his estate at Nish. General Metaxas will leave for Athens tonight.

“BLOW TO ALLIES” VIEW IN BERLIN POLITICAL CIRCLES. AN ALLEGED BRITISH PLAN DEFEATED. LONDON, February 5. Official circles in .Paris arc satisfied with the results of the conference of the Balkan Entente. They believe that members of the Entente privately took steps to ensure the strictest colkiboration if a more difficult situation arose. Berlin political circles are highly satisfied and describe the conference as a blow to the Allies’ desire to tighten the blockade by' extending the war to South-Eastern Europe, thus cutting off Germany’s sources of supplies. Political circles in Rome praise the conference as an endorsement of Italy's pacific and disinterested counsels. They say that it nullified an alleged British plan to create a defensive military bloc which might be engaged in war with Germany and Russia, enabling the intervention of the forces from Syria under the French commander, General Weygand. The Moscow radio announced that the conference was a diplomatic defeat for the Allies, who at first vainly attempted to drag in the Balkans against Germany and then substituted a Turkish plan for a defensive Balkan alliance, which also failed. The conference brought to light an unsolvable difference among the members.

HUNGARY’S ATTITUDE ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING TRADE WELCOMED. BUDAPEST. February 5. Hungary' welcomes the announcement of the Entente Slates' willingness to increase trade collaboration as a reinforcement of her economic independence, but the Entente communique's reference to territorial integrity has been coldly received. Informed quarters assert, that Hun-

gary' is waiting to see whether Rumania will improve the conditions for the Hungarian minority' in Transylvania.