THE DANUBE DELTA

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 93, 16 October 1940, Page 9

THE DANUBE DELTA

REPORtED INCURSION BY RUSSIANS

(Received October 16, 9 a.m.) LONDON, October 15. \ The political crisis in the Balkans \ t appears to be heightening, but the position is still most confused. The Turkish Ambassador in Bucharest is reported to have informed the representatives of the United States and the Soviet that Turkey will respect all her commitments to Greece and isj of the opinion that the concentration of Italian and German troops is aimed principally at the Dardanelles and Syria, which Turkey would defend to the bitter end. Turkish subjects in Rumania have been advised to liquidate their affairs before November and prepare to leave for Turkey at a moment's notice. British Associated Press messages, referring to Russian troop concentrations on the border of the Soviet Union, say that civilians have been evacuated from Cernauti (Bukovina), and that 300 Russian fighter planes have arrived in Bukovina, where many new hangars have been built, in addition to the measures in Bessarabia. Concentrations of river craft capable of carrying 20 and 30 men each are massed on the Pruth River, and large fleets of Russian naval vessels have . also gathered in the Pruth and Danube Rivers.

While Soviet circles in Bucharest professedly accept the German explanation of the Reichswehr's activities, there are many reports of increased Russian naval and military activity in the zone. Authorities in Bessarabia are reported to admit that at present there are 20 Russian divisions beyond the Rumanian border "for manoeuvres." Other Red units are supposed to have penetrated and crossed the most northerly arm of the Danube delta and to have reached Sulina. reinforced the river fleet with

four monitors, following alleged incidents between Russian and German troops near Galati, and installed heavy artillery at Reni.

Meanwhile, the German "training" of the Rumanian army has begun, with elaborate anti-aircraft precautions around Rumania's chief railway junction outside Bucharest, in addition to the oilfields.

A Bucharest message says that a German naval mission is expected to arrive at Bucharest tomorrow, probably in connection with the construction of a naval base at Mamaia, where Italian air force units have already arrived to assist in the establishment of a seaplane base.

General Antonescu, in a speech at a reception to the members of the German military mission, said: "We are engaging great teachers for a reorganisation of our army. Germany's international development is necessarilybased on economic and military facts and not illusions/