BULGARIAN OPINION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 37, 13 February 1941, Page 10

BULGARIAN OPINION

MUST BE NEUTRAL

RESISTANCE SUICIDAL

TURKEY'S ATTITUDE

IMPORTANCE EMPHASISED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

(Received February 13, .2 p.m.)

LONDON, February 12.' The certainty of an early German

occupation of Bulgaria," as a spring-

board for a drive to the south and south-east, or both, is even more un-

reservedly accepted in the neigh--1 bouring countries today as the stream of German troops and war materials continues unabated across Hungary and Rumania.

Because the Turkish attitude is vitally .important, much attention is being directed to discussion in Turkish diplomatic circles, where it is assumed that the Germans, in the event of the occupation of Bulgaria, will adopt methods which will cause the least alarm to Bulgaria's neighbours.

To avoid provoking Turkey, the German occupation might be restricted to western Bulgaria, from which she would be able to threaten Salonika if the Greeks resisted German pressure to make peace with Italy. This would create a military problem which would directly interest the English, the Greeks, and the Yugoslavs .rather than the Turks. ■

Should Germany advance in eastern Bulgaria towards the Turkish frontier, some Turkish circles consider that the Allies should move against Bulgaria from Thrace before Bulgaria is completely filled by Germans.

.. Reuters correspondent at Ankara says tliat well-informed circles in Ankara assume that neither the English nor the Turkish General Staffs desire action which would jeopardise the defence of the straits. They also recognise that the strength of the Turkish army lies in defensive rather than offensive measures.

. Meanwhile, the Turkish Government is maintaining close contact with the British Government, although it is reported to be not yet convinced that a German march is imminent. Turkish general opinion, however, has given upi Bulgaria for lost. . '

The Sofia correspondent of "Tho Times" emphasises the almost complete unanimity in Bulgarian official and political circles that Bulgaria must stay ,out of the war and that any resistance to tlie German army across the Danube would be suicidal. The Bulgarians, however, believe that the arrival of JGerman troops may bring Turkish military action, and therefore Bulgarian diplomacy, both in Ankara and Sofia, is desperately attempting to secure a Turkish guarantee that a German passage across Bulgaria would not be considered a casus belli against Bulgaria.

According to information from Ankara, the German penetration of Bulgaria has not gone as far as Mr. Churchill suggested.