BULGARIA JIBS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1940, Page 5

BULGARIA JIBS

REPORTED REFUSAL TO JOIN AXIS HITCH IN ENEMY PLANS. RESULTS OF THE EXPOSURE OF ITALY'S WEAKNESS. The latest reports indicate that Bulgaria is not expected to sign an agreement with the Axis, like those signed by Hungary, Rumania and Slovakia, the 8.8. C. reports. All this week the Germans have been putting out the story that Bulgaria was coming into the Axis this week, but something has happened to show Berlin and Rome that they cannot got Bulgaria into the Axis at present. Several factors may have helped to change the situation, including a growing realisation of Italian weakness. A report that the Bulgarian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are about to visit Berlin has been denied. The report was issued by the Rome radio and denied by the official Stefani agency. The strength of the forces in Bulgaria opposed to joining up with the Axis is the subject of a long broadcast from Moscow. A long debate in

the Bulgarian Parliament is said to have been marked by criticism of the Government and demands for closer relations with the Soviet. It is believed that the defeat of the Italians in Albania has had a profound effect upon the people of the Balkans and the Middle East. PREDATORY PLANS. The Italian plan is said to have aimed at the dismemberment of Greece by the enlargement of Albania and the creation of a Macedonian Republic based on Salonika, leaving a rump Greek State, which might have been incorporated later in a Greater Albania. Italian plans were directed to the establishment of maximum control over South-Eastern Europe, at the expense of all the nations in that area. Germany has shown herself ready to allow Mussolini to carve out a new empire in the Balkans if he could, but now Hitler has to consider how to assist his ally in face of rapidly growing opposition in the Balkans and the Middle East. .There are many expressions of rising opposition to the Axis and its, threats in Arab territories and in Egypt. In the latter country contempt' for Italy and anger against indiscriminate bombing in Egypt are rife.