BALKAN TENSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1940, Page 2

BALKAN TENSION

MOVEMENTS OF GERMAN TROOPS MANY DISTURBING REPORTS AND RUMOURS. SPECULATION IN BULGARIA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 29. The Balkans have been thrown tonight into a state of alarm and tension by reports and rumours of German troop movements. Some of these have been substantiated, notwithstandnig the strict censorship both in Hungary and Rumania which has blotted out many details and estimates of numbers.

The Associated Press correspondent in Sofia reports that advance guards of German troops moved up to the Bulgarian frontier today, and could be seen taking up positions and occupying barracks on the Rumanian side of the ice-blocked Danube, which constitutes the frontier between Bulgaria and Rumania.

Tension is growing in Bulgaria, King Boris, conferred with the Premier, and there is speculation in Sofia about the German intentions. Hungary is also in a state of turmoil. Count Teleki, the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, resigned because he differed with the Government about German troops movements through Hungary. The censorship authorities suggested that it should not be said that the Hungarian railways are under German management. Notwithstanding the censorship, estimates of the number of German troops moving from Hungary into Rumania have risen from the original 300,0Q0 to 600,000. It is also reported that some German troops may remain in Hungary.

It is reported that there are no signs of German plans to dominate Hungary as they do Rumania, but the hold which the Germans have on the railways indicates that they will maintain control of the means of transport till the completion of what ever scheme they have in mind. UNREST IN RUMANIA. The unrest in Rumania may explain why more German troops are said to have been sent to Rumania in the last few days. It is thought that Germany may have found it expedient to increase her garrison in Rumania as a precautionary measure rather than through , a desire to embark on a new and rash adventure elsewhere. This is certainly the view put forward by a semi-official Yugoslav ■ newspaper, which says that the unsettled position of the new regime in Rumania is sufficient reason for Germany to safeguard the political developments of the country. This explanation may account for the drastic cuts made in the Rumanian railway services similar to those of a few days ago in Hungary. The Germans may well need all the trains they can get to send troops into Rumania. Other suggestions have been made, of course, to explain the curtailment of railway traffic, as well as the rather convenient official explanation about the weather. It has been suggested that the railways may be needed to carry oil from Rumania to Germany and Italy, as the other alternative route, the Danube is now frozen over. In any case, the disorganisation which these restrictions are bound to bring in Rumania is not likely to add to the popularity of German methods.

There are clear signs of a revival of national feeling in Rumania and this is recognised not only by Germany but by Hungary, which has become uneasy lest frontier incidents and unrest caused by the Iron Guard should result in German orders to hand back Transylvania to Rumania.