NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1934. A BALKAN PACT

Northern Advocate, 23 March 1934, Page 6

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1934. A BALKAN PACT

Kegistered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

An important pact a fleet i 112; the relationship', of the Balkan Powers was signed at Athens on .February .10 by the Foreign Ministers of Greece, ’Rumania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. It is called a "Pact of Balkan Understanding*” and its purpose is mutually to guarantee the signatories’ respective Balkan frontiers. The preamble clearly I states that the chief purpose of | the Pact is the maintenance of ‘•the present 'territorial order” in the Balkan .Peninsula. The .signatories are thus engaged to combine in the support and defence of the Paris Protocol of 1926, which finally confirmed, the frontiers of the. Albanian State; of the Treaty of Nenilly. which defined the present frontiers of Bulgaria; and the Treaty of Lausanne, which, established the European limits-of the Turkish Republic, It Is only natural that the four Governments, remembering all that happened between 19J*2 and 1922, when dire sufferings and disasters overtook their,

nations, should endeavour, so far ias is possible, to avert or minimise the dangers oC eonfliet among themselves, which' would lay them open. to. further dismemberment at the hands of neighbouring Powers. The fear of sueli a happening is intensified by recent events and tendencies in Central Europe. The Balkans have tried to protect their frontiers against any attack that! might follow a conflagration; as a result of the German Revolution and the threat against Austria, a danger which has not yet passed. As our cables mentioned at the time the Balkan Pact was signed, there seems to be good reason for the argument that the Pact has been weakened by the omission of Bulgaria and Albania. It was admitted editorially by “The Times : ’ that this criticism is justified.. It was pointed out that Rumania and Yugoslavia are as much Central. European as they are Balkan Powers. It must be admitted that this criticism is justified. Rumania and Yugoslavia are as much Central European as they are Balkan Powers.!

The chief interests of Turkey lie in Asia Minor. Greece from some points of view is a Mediterranean State. Ot‘ the six Balkan Powers only Bulgaria and Albania have no extra-Balkan interests. The omission of Albania was probably due to the desire of the Greek and Turkish Governments, the prime, movers in the negotiations which led up to the Pact, to avoid offending Italy, which is the ally or. as some would say, Ihe protector of the Albanian kingdom, and is also on excellent terms with Greece and Turkey. On the other hand all the four Governments wished to obi a In. tbe adhesion of Bulgaria to 11mpact. Bo far they have failed bc.ennse, while Bulgarian public opinion generally favours a good understanding with the neighbouring Balkan nations, and especially with tbe closely related Yugoslavs, it is not prepared to renounce all hope of the agreed revision, of some of Ibe most onerous clauses of the Treaty of Neuilly under Article 10 of the Govenant of the League of; Nations. It is well known, as was pointed out at the time, that the four Governments were by no means in agreement as to tbe

course fo be followed towards Bulgaria, rnul tliat the Bart, in its final shape represents a cornpromisc between the Yugoslav view and that of the three signatories. The Greek and Turkish Governments,. which were notoriously disturbed by the striking improvement in the relations between Belgrade and Sofia, apparently pressed for the signature of the Pact at the earliest possible moment, 'with or without Bulgaria; and the 'Rumanian Government seem to have advocated much the same policy. Yugoslav statesmen, however, took a different and a longer view of the issue before, them. They hoped, and still hope, for a solid and permanenl understanding with Bulgaria; they may lie prepared eventually to make some concessions to her; they were particularly anxious that the proposed Pact should be negotiated and drafted in such a way as to give the least, possible, offence to Bulgarian sentiment and to “leave the door open” for the entry of Bulgaria. The French Government, who believed that a prompt Balkan demonstration in defence of the existing order would assist their general European policy, added their efforts I’o those of the hi her three Powers in order lo persuade ’.M. V,evtitch, the Yugoslav Foreign Alinistor, to sign without delay. But. though he finally yielded, there will be no disposition in Yugoslavia to attach great value to a Balkan Pact which neither Bulgaria nor Albania has joined, especially if it should prove hereafter to be an obstacle to an agreement with Bulgaria. From | a more general European point |of view the Pact may be deI scribed, in Abe words of “The }Times,” as “good as far as it IgoesY But it does not go verv far.