THREAT TO TURKEY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 124, 26 April 1941, Page 7

THREAT TO TURKEY

CONTROL OF DARDANELLES

LONDON, April 24. Tlic Daily Herald says foreign diplomatic circles in London report that Germany is demanding from Turkey complete military control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles in return for a slice of Grecian Thrace. The Turkish Government, according to these circles, has not yet answered, hut is being pressed lor an immediate A message from Ankara says the Bulgarian occupation of Oiecian Thrace has liberated German troops for other duties. The German High Command is reported to be concentrating men and materials at i lovdiv (iTiilippopolls) in. Bulgaria, and it is reported that E-boats arc being assembled at Burgas and Constanta on the Black Sea. , , The Ankara correspondent ot the Times says it is realised there that the next German move may intimately concern Turkey. The German Ambassador (von Papen), however, has not yet returned from his visit to Hitler, and German troop movements in the Balkans give no precise indication ol what is in the wind. -p, The German concentrations at ripl* div were recently increased, but this is not necessarily ominous. Jhe question of whether Turkey will be attacked depends on the state of Tu ish-Gcrmaii relations It is simply a question of whether the German High STw &S £ ts* ** £3 make wai against Turkey to Li e sake of the straits alone. Iroiemg a pas age across Turkey would mvolve op. orations on a grand sta , less inviting since the British have assorted themselves iu J?" Turks, accordingly, think theie is a fifty-fifty chance that Germany make no effort.

The Times adds that nobody, however, imagines that the BeTiuai armies will remain idle or which reason Balkan reports that German officers are talking ol Uivad ng hc Soviet Union—to break the adc by the Odessa route— m< y be entirely bluff.

An Istanbul message says the British consulate there has advised Br.t ish people to leave.