THE FIGHT IN GREECE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 130, 28 November 1940, Page 11

THE FIGHT IN GREECE

LEFT TO ITALY

IMPRESSION IN TURKEY

GERMAN ATTITUDE

TURKS PREPARE FOR ANY

EVENTUALITY

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

LONDON, November 26. The Ankara correspondent of "Thi Times" says that the impression is becoming stronger there that Germany will not intervene in the war between Italy and Greece. This attitude is at least partly due to Turkey maintaining a strong front in Thrace. The Rome correspondent of the Associated Press of America states that according to informed quarters Germany is leaving the fight against Greece entirely to Italy.

A Belgrade message says that the Berlin correspondent of the "Politika" quotes an authoritative source for a statement that Germany does not regard Greece as an enemy of the tripartite pact while the present situation continues or so long as Greece does not declare war against Germany.

The Ankara correspondent of "The Times" says that the Turks from the beginning favoured the Greek chances against Italy, but that the Greek successes have exceeded their highest expectations. Turkey has contributed to these successes by protecting the Greek rear, thereby enabling the Greek High Command to withdraw all its troops from the Bulgarian frontier, to fight on the Albanian front. It is stated reliably that not a single Greek gendarme is on the frontier of Bulgaria and Greece. The Istanbul correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" reports that Turkey is pressing on with her preparations for any eventuality. The' Ministry of Commerce will shortly become the Ministry of Commerce and Victualling, equivalent .to the British Ministry of Supply, with the task of accumulating stocks for military and civil consumption and also distributing all kinds of commodities. A permanent total black-out, the strictest ever imposed in Turkey, will be enforced on Sunday, after which there will be exhaustive tests of passive defence. All shops, stores, official departments, and private offices will be closed at 4.30 p.m. General Artunkall, former comman-der-in-chief of the Turkish police, has been appointed general officer commanding the six zones in European Turkey in which a state of siege has been proclaimed. He arrived today at Istanbul, where he will direct the emergency measures imposed under martial law. His outstanding political personality emphasises the vast scale of Turkey's military measures, and the drastic preparations in the zones near Bulgaria and Greece, added to these steps, constitute the clearest warning to the Axis and its satellites that the slightest move to imperil Turkey's security and independence will be met with arms.