DIRECT WARNING GIVEN TO ITALY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1940, Page 5

DIRECT WARNING GIVEN TO ITALY

Intervention if Security is Threatened in Balkans IMPROVEMENT IN RUSSO-TURKISH RELATIONS BOTH SIDES WITHDRAW FRONTIER TROOPS IN CAUCASUS (By Telegraph. —Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 7. The Moscow radio last night warned Italy that Russia will intervene if she feels her security is threatened in the Balkans. The announcer added: “Russia will also intervene whenever she considers that her security is at stake. Italy will do well to realise this. ’ ’ An Istanbul message says that the Turkish Government has banned exports to Italy. Russia and Turkey have withdrawn their heavy troop concentrations from the mutual frontier in the Caucasus. The withdrawals were made as a gesture of good faith after an improvement in the two Powers’ relations. Turkey has greatly welcomed Russia’s support, for otherwise Yugoslavia would be without protection. Cairo reports that an Italian steamer which was about to sail from Alexandria was ordered to unload her entire cargo of cotton. The Egyptian Government has completed its plans for ' the wholesale evacuation of civilians from Cairo and Alexandria, and urges families to evacuate nbw and not to wait till the last moment. Rationing measures have also been formulated. The Arab Legion which is Egypt’s first Bedouin cavalry ■' army, has taken up strategic positions with orders to wage guerilla warfare, harrying the enemy’s lines of communication by night and remaining invisible in the day time. The legionaries carry rifles, daggers and hand-grenades.