SOVIET & TURKEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 March 1940, Page 5

SOVIET & TURKEY

DEFENCES IN CAUCASUS STRENGTHENED PROTECTION OF THE BAKU OILFIELDS. REPORTED NEGOTIATIONS WITH RUMANIA. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON. March G. The Ankara newspaper “Yemisabah” says that Russia is expediting the strengthening of 1 lie defences of the ‘'Caucasus frontier. Air bases are being established for the protection of the oilfields and railways between Batum and Baku.' The newspaper warns Russia that aggression against Turkey would arouse the Moslem world, which realises that freedom and justice cannot be expected from Russia. An account by the semi-official Rumanian news agency of the recent clash on the frontier of Bulgaria and Rumania emphasises that the frontier authorities of both countries immediately conferred and settled the incident in a friendly manner.

The capitals of south-eastern Europe are puzzled by reports from Bucharest crediting the Soviet Legation with the statement that M. Molotov, the Russian Premier, is to arrive there shortly to sign a Russo-Rumanian nonaggression pact.

The Bucharest correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain quotes the Soviet Charge d’Affaires as describing as a gross invention reports that the Legation announced that M. Molotov was to visit Bucharest to sign a trade treaty. So far there is no elucidation whether the reports of a trade treaty and a non-aggression pact refer to the same subject