UNCERTAIN NEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1940, Page 5

UNCERTAIN NEWS

1 OF POSITION IN BALKANS i i — I- > MORE REPORTS OF SOVIET ! CONCENTRATIONS. > THREAT TO RUSSIA STRESSED IN TURKEY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) ; LONDON, October 15. ! Troops of many nations are con- ! centrating in the Balkans. Shiploads of Italians are being transported across the Adriatic Sea I from Bari and Brindisi to the Ali banian ports of Durazzo and Val lona. Turkey has concentrated 400,000 troops on her Bulgarian border. Messages from Athens reflect the alarm that is felt in ; Greece at the German and Italian moves in the Balkans; Greece fears r an Axis pincers movement from ; Albania and Bulgaria. Italians have been warned to leave Greece > immediately. : British Associated Press messages, , referring to Russian troop concentrations on the Soviet Union’s Balkans ; border, say that civilians have been evacuated from Cernauti (Bukovina), and 300 Russian fighter planes have arrived in Bukovina, where many new hangars have been built. In addition to . the measures in Bessarabia, concentrations of river craft capable of carrying 20 and 30 men each are massed on the Pruth River, and large fleets of Russian naval vessels have also been gathered in the Pruth and Danube Rivers. (A message yesterday reported Colonel Ratay, United States military attache in Bucharest, as declaring that there was nothing to justify*reports of vast Russian troop movements, and that none had occurred in the past few weeks.) GERMANS IN RUMANIA. According to German circles the German troops in Rumania will soon number 10 divisions (considerably over 100,000 men). The number at present in Rumania is believed in London to be upward of 30,000. About 3000 more Germans, mostly , belonging to anti-aircraft units, have J arrived at Galatz, the important Dan- • übian river port near the delta. Hungary reports that columns of Germans passed through the outskirts of Budapest in the weekend on their way to the frontier. The military and naval attaches at the British Legation, together with their staffs, left Bucharest yesterday. The British Legation will remain for the time being under the British Minister. It is expected that 20 members of the skeleton legation staff will be the only British subjects left in Rumania by the end of the week. AXIS AND HUNGARY. Budapest reports that a mission comprising Italians and Germans will arrive in the Hungarian capital tomorrow to begin arbitration of the Ruman-ian-Hungarian dispute ovei - their minorities in Transylvania. A Rumanian representative arrived in Berlin and was received by Herr von Ribbentrop. It is also reported that the former Rumanian Foreign Minister, M. Manoilescu, has arrived in Rome to plead Rumania’s case. The Bucharest wireless stated that it was revealed in Rome that the State led by General Antonescu will be considered a State within the framework of the Axis policy. Rationing is being instituted in Rumania and the eating of meat is forbidden on three days of the week. Bread of inferior quality is being sold at twice the usual price, and no butter is obtainable from one province, because the Germans want it. Other foodstuffs and fuel are also affected. i One Rumanian newspaper has been suspended for publishing articles which i are alleged to have been inciting to : arbitrary acts and disorders. : Moscow is reticent about the present ; developments, and statements are confined to a repetition of American : reports of German troops arriving in ; Rumania.

Turkish newspapers stress the possible German threat to Russia. The official newspaper “Ulus” suggests that

Germany is possibly preparing a base to strike north of Rumania to check and Soviet move southward. Another newspaper states: “By the occupation of Rumania Germany .has reached the Black Sea and pushed herself like a dagger into the flank of the Soviet Union.” The Soviet Ambassador in Ankara is reported to have arrived in Istanbul on a short visit.

Sources in Tokio states that Germany, alarmed a,t Brtish diplomatic moves in Russia, is sending a mission to Moscow.