EGYPT’S BACK DOOR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 267, 9 October 1940, Page 7

EGYPT’S BACK DOOR.

REPORTED AXIS PLAN

LONDON, Sept. 24

Axis control of Yugoslavia as a pieliminary to an - attack on Greece, winch would bring Italian and German armies to a position from which they could attack Turkey, Syria, and Palestine, is forecast in a message from the Belgrade correspondent of the Daily Mail, which is supported by other sources in Athens and Istanbul. “The first move is likely to be an attempt to impose on Yugoslavia an Axis-controlled regime similar to that forced on Rumania,” the Daily Mail correspondent says. “Then there may he a demand, backed by threats, for German and Italian troops to march through Monastir Pass on North Greece. .

“Bulgaria’s revisionist claims on Grecian Thrace may be used as an excuse for Bulgarian army leaders to favour Germany. With Bulgaria and Yugoslavia passive or assisting, and with Greece conquered, the way would be open for a direct attack on Turkey and an attempt to occupy Syria. Success in that direction would enable the Axis to take Britain’s Egyptian armies in thq rear, through Palestine. “A secondary move connected with the plan seems to be a campaign to stir up hate between Rumania and Hungary regarding Hungarian atrocities in Transylvania, to enable the German Army to move in.”