BALKAN TENSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 156, 30 December 1940, Page 8

BALKAN TENSION

NAZI TROOP MOVEMENTS

BULGARIAN FRONTIER

TURMOIL IN HUNGARY

LONDON, December 29,

The Balkans have been thrown tonight into a state of alarm and tension by reports and rumours of German troop movements. Some of these have been substantiated, notwithstanding the strict censorship both in Hungary, and Rumania which has blotted out many details and estimates of numbers.

The Associated Press correspondent in Sofia reports that advance guards of German troops moved up to the Bulgarian frontier today, and could be seen taking up positions and occupying barracks on the Rumanian side of the ice-blocked Danube, which constitutes the frontier between Bulgaria and Rumania.

Tension is growing in Bulgaria. King Boris conferred with the Premier, and there is speculation in Sofia about the German intentions.

Hungary is also in a state of turmoil. Count Teleki, the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, resigned because he differed with the Government about German troop movements through Hungary. The censorship authorities suggested that it should not be said that the Hungarian railways are under German management.

Notwithstanding the censorship, estimates of the number of German troops moving from Hungary into Rumania have risen from the original 300,000 to 600,000. It is also reported that some German troops may remain in Hungary.

It is reported that there are no signs of German plans to dominate Hungary as they do in Rumania, but the hold which the Germans have on the railways indicates that they will maintain control of the means of transport until the completion of whatever scheme they have in mind.