AXIS & SOVIET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1940, Page 5

AXIS & SOVIET

REPORTED NAZI MOVE FOR AGREEMEMNT HOPES OF DISCOURAGING TURKEY. AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT’S SPECULATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) .. NEW YORK, November 4. According to the Switzerland correspondent of the “New York Times,” diplomatic observers see a connection between the return of von Papen. German Ambassador to Turkey, from Turkey for a talk with Hitler and a possible agreement between Moscow, Berlin and Rome on various questions appertaining to the Balkans and the Near East, particularly the subject of Turkey. Questions to be discussed will perhaps go beyond a mere division of spoils and include spheres of influence. The correspondent adds that probably one question will be active Russian collaboration in attaining a “peaceful conquest” of the Near East by confronting any real resistance in that area with a solid military block. Turkey’s firm attitude toward Bulgaria is expected to cause the Axis Powers considerable embarrassment | unless Russia is prevailed upon to withdraw the tacit support she is understood to have given Ankara. Such withdrawal by the Soviet would leave Turkey virtually alone in the Near East and also leave the Dardanelles open to relatively easy conquest, after which it would be but a step to continue the drive toward Syria and Iraq and the fuel supplies in that area. Some quarters assert that the Russian Foreign Commissar, M. Molotov, is ready to sign on the dotted linre, thus making Russian adherence to the tripartite pact against aggression a fact instead of a fancy. Thus would Germany be able to show the remaining British sympathisers in the Near East the futility of resisting her new order for Europe.