TRIP POSTPONED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 March 1941, Page 5

TRIP POSTPONED

YUGOSLAV MINISTERS OPPOSITION TO PACT WITH AXIS. SOVIET ASSURANCE TO TURKEY. LONDON, March 11. The Belgrade correspondent of the “Daily Mail" says a German plane arrived yesterday to take M.M. Tsvetkovitch and Markovitch (Yugoslav Premier and Foreign Minister respectively) - to sign a non-aggression pact with Herr Hitler, but the trip has been postponed, it is reported, for three reasons: 1. The passage of the American Lend and Lease Bill. 2. An unconfirmed report of Russian diplomatic moves in the Turkish and Yugoslav capitals. 3. A flood of “no surrender” resolutions from opposition parties and patriotic organisations. The Istanbul correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain quotes a reliable unofficial source stating that M. Molotov assured the Turkish Ambassador t« Moscow that Turkey need not fear an attack from Russia if she entered the war. The correspondent states that a foreign diplomatic source said Turkish anti-aircraft guns fired on three German warplanes flying over Turkish fortifications on the Bulgarian frontier. The planes were not hit and returned. A Belgrade message says Yugoslav anti-aircraft guns are reported to have shot down a three-engined German bomber near Negotin. REPORTED TENSION. The Belgrade correspondent of “The Times” says tenseness has developed in relations between Germany and Yugoslavia. Anti-German incidents are reported from Slovenia, near the German frontier. Yugoslav army circles and the Serbian population are increasingly uneasy at the prospect of a pact with Germany, which, while outwardly preserving the country’s independence, would make Yugoslavia an instrument of German politics in the Balkans. The likelihood that Hitler, after the pact of friendship, would insist on demobilisation of the Yugoslav army has aroused alarm among the Serbian military leaders, and stiffened their resistance to German proposals. Yugoslavs are paying great attention to a new Bulgarian-German agreement for an early general mobilisation of the Bulgarian army. The stiffening of Yugoslav opinion has resulted in a hardening of German diplomacytoward Yugoslavia. TURKISH PREPARATIONS. The "Daily Telegraph’s” Ankara correspondent says it is now openly admitted that Turkey will stand no nonsense and will fight if necessary. Germany has not enough troops in the Balkans to face Turkey and Greece, and, perhaps, eventually Yugoslavia, while guarding the Russian frontier and also maintaining readiness for other emergencies. The Turkish determination to fight if the country is menaced is demon