PEACE DEMAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1943, Page 4

PEACE DEMAND

RAISED IN BULGARIA BY ARMY AND PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION. AWAKENING TO REALITIES OF WAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, December 12. Both the Bulgarian Army and the Parliamentary Opposition are demanding that the Bulgarian Government take Bulgaria out of the war or make way for a popular Government, said a Bulgarian colonel who has just arrived in Istanbul from Sofia. He added: “The crisis in Bulgaria is due to the Army's opposition to the Government's pro-German policy. The Parliamentary Opposition has voted lack of confidence in the Regency, which it declared to be too proNazi.” The Associated’ Press Ankara correspondent says the puppet Bulgarian Government, backed by the German police, is fighting an incipient revolt, while the Nazis tighten the last screws in the Balkan defence machine. The Bulgarian crisis was created by the implied threat from the Teheran and Cairo conferences that the Allies will soon strike in the Balkans, and by a conviction that the Russians can no longer be expected to save Bulgaria from the responsibility of helping Germany to dominate the Balkans. Recent air attacks on Sofia have brought home to Bulgaria the realities of war, and have convinced the people that their lives and property are endangered by the Government’s alliance with Germany, and the country faces a real catastrophe if the alliance is not broken. According to the Paris radio, Sofia was again bombed last night. The Budapest radio stated that several time bombs exploded in Sofia yesterday, 24 hours after the Allied raid on Friday, causing considerable material damage but no casualties, as the areas had previously been evacuated. SOUGHT BY NAZIS DECLARATION OF SOLIDARITY. IN ANSWER TO CORDELL HULL. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) ■LONDON, December 12. A German official has called upon Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria to give a clear answer to Mr. Cordell Hull’s warning to these countries. The German news agency’s diplomatic correspondent, Dr. Horn, stated that the enemy recognised the hopelessness of attempts to impress the German people by paper manifestos, and was now trying to lever Germany’s smaller allies from the front line. “These allies,” he added, “have replied to sugary offers from Teheran in a fashion which already anticipates their answer to Mr Hull’s threat with a whip. Berlin nevertheless considers that a reply to this direct enemy attempt to put pressure on them would be a valuable contribution to the manifestations on December 11 of solidarity in Europe and East Asia.”

In a statement in Washington, -the United State's Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) said that Germanys Balkan satellites must by this time realise that they will have to share the responsibility for the consequences of the terrible defeat which the United Nations’ arms are so surely bringing to Nazi Germany.’