BULGAR DEFENCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 81, 6 April 1943, Page 3

BULGAR DEFENCE

GERMAN DIRECTION Preparedness Against Allied Invasion N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, April 5. Military preparations in Bulgaria are at present greater than since April, 1941, says the Daily Express correspondent at Istanbul, pointing out that, after the Hitler-King Boris meeting, Germany ordered the repatriation by May 15 of all Germans living in Bulgaria. . Germany expects a Russian attack against the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and a British-American invasion from the south. Germany recentlv withdrew for the Russian front the war material she gave to Bulgaria, but is now re-equipping the Bulgarian forces. Moreover, Germany, after the recent riots in protest against the sending of Bulgarian troops to the Russian front, decided that the Bulgars were required only for the defence of the Balkans. This was confirmed at the Hitler-King Boris meeting. Bulgarians living at the Black Sea ports of Burgas and Varna were ordered to move three miles inland and Bulgar troops at these ports are now openly under German command. Fortifications are being built along the whole Black Sea coast, to which guns have been moved from the Greek Metaxas Line. The Times Istanbul correspondent says that everybody agrees that it is unlikely that King Boris, who has kept in the- background for nine months and adopted a Sphinx-like attitude, should have desired to meet Hitler. From this it is inferred that the meeting resulted from German initiative. In other words Hitler summoned Boris to hear what he had to say. The Times correspondent concludes that everybody in Bulgaria, since last summer, has been able to read the writing on the wall and realises how the war situation is developing. Popular feeling, therefore, is increasingly against further commitments for Germany. Propaganda Drive The Bulgarian Minister of War, General Mikhoff, has precipitately left Sofia, following an inspection ot fortifications on the Aegean coast, and the new defences being constructed in the Bulgarian-Turkish frontier and the Black Sea coast. The Government in Sofia has organised a propaganda drive aimed at telling the people of Bulgaria that they will have to take a more acUye part in the war. ■ A Bulgarian Minister is quoted by the Germans as saying that Bulgaria cannot stand aloof in the event of an Allied landing in the Balkans. We Bulgarians have joined the Axis, he said, "and though to-day we are standing with arms at order, tomorrow we may be on guard on the shores of the Adriatic, Aegean or Black Seas." The Daily Telegraph says that, although Bulgaria has been ordered to take up arms on behalf of the Axis, only King Boris and a small coterie favour such a course. It was as a man greatly interested in a German victory that King Boris went to see Hitler, says' the Manchester Guardian. At war with Britain and the United States, though not with Russia, his countryhas been thrown scraps of Greek and Yugoslav territory. He may wish to avoid paying for his booty by sending troops to fight with. Germany, whose fortunes have much declined, but his wish may not be allowed.