A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 176, 20 April 1940, Page 10

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Yugoslavia’s Fears PROBLEM OF MANY MINORITIES One of the least publicized of European countries, yet one now claiming its share of interest in this time ot move and counter-move in the Balkans, is Yugoslavia. Early this week it was reported that Yugoslavia lut'd begun to fear she was next on the list of neutrals to feel the power of Germany. She is one of the countries now engaged in a feveits 1 clean-up of espionage suspects and is feeling the embarrassment ot an influx of German “tourists/’ A-s she has tt minority of 500,000 Germans, she niffy not find her task easy. German Threats? Twice within a few days it has been reported that. German troops are on her frontier and anti-Allied leaflets have been distributed in Belgrade. Together with Rumania, she has- refused to accede to Germany’s demands to be allowed control of Danube traffic; and whereas a few days ago she was said to be awaiting anxiously a reaffirmation of Italian neutrality she has now taken a surprise move by a projected reopening of commercial relations with Russia. This is thought to be a possible effort to pave the way for the resumption of diplomatic relations after a break of 23 years. It might also be regarded as an attempt to seek Russian protection , . Yugoslavia is not included m Mr. Chamberlain’s system of eastern European guarantees, except possibly indirectly if Turkey should regard happenings there as a menace to her security. Internal Problems

She is a nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants, with considerable economic resources, but also internal racial problems. Her ever-present problem has been to unite the half-dozen or so principal nationalities included in her borders into one harmonious whole, in this progress has been slow. For many years the conflict between the Serbs and the Croats dominated the politics of the country, with the occasional moves for a settlement meeting with little success till the middle of last year. Then, the opposition of the Regent, Prince Paul, to democratic concessions was apparently overcome and the dismissal of the Germanophile Stoyadinovich from the premiership paved the way for a move toward pacification. Concessions To Croats

Thus in August last an accord was reached whereby the Croats at last gained some of the objects for which they had so long struggled—a Parliament of their own to deal with cultural and economic problems and a certain degree of financial autonomy At the same time the Croats were given five portfolios in the Cabinet and free elections, with the secret ballot, and freedom of the Press were restored. This meant progress in solving the main problem, but there are other minority troubles still, and these assist the work of the propagandist. Before these changes the policy of the rulers of Yugoslavia tended to be pro-German, though Italy was always interested in her neighbour. Yet the Yugoslavian people are said, to be passionately hostile to the Axis and devoted not only to the democratic peoples but also to Russia, their traditional protector, to whom they now seem to have turned. It has been said that to make the Yugoslavs fight against Britain or France would be difficult, and that to make them fight against Russia, another Slav nation, would be impossible. Vulnerable Position

Yugoslavia stretches along the Adriatic coastline in the west, and her land frontier is bounded by Italy, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania. She is thus vulnerable to a German attack aud, if Italy were so disposed, to a thrust from Albania. If Germany’s latest moves are foreshadowing an attack on Yugoslavia the object would be access to the Adriatic Sea and Yugoslavia’s resources, control over an additional part of the Danube and a more advantageous position from which to exert pressure on Ru mania. That at least a section of the Yugoslav people is out of sympathy with Germany is shown by a report that the German Consul-General recently used threatening language about the attitude of the Yugoslav Press. Yugoslav’s chief exports are grain, cattle, timber and prunes; her chief imports cotton and woollen textiles, machinery and chemicals. In 1938 Germany took 35.9 per cent, of the exports and provided 32.5 per cent, of the imports. Sombre Germany

‘■Gone are the great party rallies, the staged demonstrations. Gone are the days of the Nazis ueber Alles. Now the general atmosphere (in Germany) is very like that of today's memorial service, sombre, subdued, ready for the worst. The crowds did not cheer Hitler as he drove down Unter den Linden in his open car, did not gather in front of the Chancellery, as they usually do when he appears. He spoke amid camouflaged cannon and armoured cars of the World War in the Central Court Museum, filled with old uniforms, tattered flags and antiquated guns—the debris of centuries of warfare. Round the hall were disposed the human wreckage of the latest victory, 200 wounded soldiers of the Polish campaign. Prelude To War

“No sound broke the silence except Hitler’s low voice blurred by echoes. When he ended abruptly on a note indicating what lies ahead, not a murmur was heard. It was a funeral service, and the obituary mood was accentuated by the piercing strains of the Eroica Symphony. But throughout the speech, as well as Beethoven's great elegy, played by a string orchestra, also in military uniform, one felt the commemoration was not for heroes already dead, but for heroes about to die. The occasion was plainly keyed to a prelude to war.” —Anne O'Hara McCormick in the "New York Times,” March 11. Valuable Refugee Among Jews and others who have fled from Germany are men who are experts in many spheres and whose loss the Reich is sure to regret. One instance of this comes from Canada.' where the great Empire air scheme is centred and where the Trnns-Cnnada Airways system has built up a splendid record for reliability. This is attributed to tlie high standard of weather forecasting. At the head of this work is one of the three best weather experts in the world—a German refugee—and he now training weather forecasters for service both in Cauda and with Canadian air squadrons abroad.