TENSION IN THE BALKANS

Evening Star, Issue 24920, 19 July 1943, Page 3

TENSION IN THE BALKANS

ALL AXIS LEAVE STOPPED TRWP REINFORCEMENTS RUSHED T 6 6REECE LONDON, July 16. Members of the Macedonian Revolutionary , Committee are believed to be co-operating with the Yugoslav patriots, who inflicted. serious casualties on Bulgarian. troops at Skoplje and' other Yugoslav towns. All leave was stopped for Axis troops throughout the Balkans,' while ; Bulgaria, especially, was in a state of tension. There was panic in Sofia, where, a special German radio installation jammed all the Allied broadcasts to Bulgaria. Troop reinforcements have been rushed to Greece.

'■The Bulgarian . Premier, Professor Filoff, abandoned an inspection of the defences in Thrace and rushed back to the capital, where, a few hours after the announcement of Allied landings in Sicily, 1 leaflets were distributed, saying:" The Allies have disembarked in Sicily. .Our turn to save Bulgaria from the Axis, approaches." • The Vichy radio stated that Bulgarian troops were taking over to-day from 'ltalian troops several Yugoslav towns, which Italy hadi ceded to Bulgaria under the terms of recent agreements. ■. The Algiers radio, quoting a message from Ankara, said that patriots occupied 10 villages _ along the Al-barijan-Yugoslav frontier.