EVENING POST WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941. BULGARS' NEXT MOVE?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 74, 24 September 1941, Page 6

EVENING POST WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941. BULGARS' NEXT MOVE?

Will Hitler press Bulgaria into the war against Russia? Would it not suit his interests equally well to urge the Bulgarian army to invade the hereditary enemy of the Bulgars, Turkey? These questions emerge from the fog of propaganda which surrounds Bulgaria's attitude to Russia and Germany, through which propaganda looms the figure of yon Papen as he makes his shuttle journeys to and fro between Berlin, Sofia, and Ankara. It is fairly certain that a war waged by the Bulgarian Government against Russia would be unpopular with the Bulgars, who during the last century | have owed much to Russia, and whose natural leaning is towards the country which helped them so vitally in 1878 and with which they have so many close ties. It is equally certain that the average Bulgar, whose father and grandfather fought the Turks, would accept war against Turkey far more willingly than war against Russia. Of course, under the Hitler regime the feelings of the common people do not count. Nevertheless, might not Hitler and his Bulgar tool Filoff find it profitable to project Bulgaria into the war from a popular angle rather than from an unpopular one? A war begun by Bulgaria against Turkey would not necessarily be a war by Germany against Turkey. Italy began a similar war against Greece, and for a long time Germany did not enter the war; Germany, in fact, did not enter the war against Greece until it became clear that Italy was failing. Hitler would be repeating a similar manoeuvre if he brought about a war by Bulgaria against Turkey; then, if the Bulgars,1 of their own efforts, could drive the Turks out of Europe and could seize the European shores of the Turkish Straits, Bulgaria and Germany would be able to dominate the Straits and open the passage between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. But if the Bulgarian army failed to. pull this political chestnut from the Turkish fire, Hitler no doubt would enter the war against Turkey as lie entered the war against Greece. Yon Papen must have quoted many times to the Turkish Government the recent history of Italy, Greece, and Germany, which speaks for itself. Whether! Hitler makes his beginning by staging a Bulgarian-Turkish war as{ a side-show, or whether he strikes | himself in full force, there is little doubt that he is determined to turn Russia's flank via the Black Sea and Turkey. By attacking Turkey, the Bulgars might serve his purpose as well as if they attacked Russia, and with less reluctance.