Balkans Prepare For War

Northern Advocate, 24 February 1940, Page 7

Balkans Prepare For War

LONDON, February 22. The Soviet Black Sea Fleet has completed its winter manoeuvres, and has returned to Sebastopol. Rumania has called up many of the 200,000 reservists who were originally intended to join the colours on March 1, when there will be a state of virtual general mobilisation, with 1,600,000 men under arms. The Rumanian railways are jammed with reservists moving to the frontiers, particularly the Hungarian frontier. It is estimated that Rumania requires only two months to complete her western fortifications, after which work on other fronts will be speeded up. King Georgq of Greece today began an inspection of all the services, signalling the opening of Greece’s military preparations. Compulsory air raid precautions drill have been instituted. Rumania’s Oil. The calling up of reserves, in Rumania, says the Bucharest correspondent of the Associated Press, followed authoritative reports that Germany is challenging the Rumanian ban on the export of aviation petrol. Dr. Karl Clodius, of the Reich Ministry of Economics, will arrive in Bucharest next Monday, when an Italian trade mission is also due. Authoritative sources in Berlin maintain that Dr. Clodius’s visit is essentially routine, but German circles in Bucharest hint that Germany’s attitude to the neutral Powers in the Balkans depends upon the outcome of Dr. Clodius’s talks. German Monopoly Wanted. Neutral owners of oil as well as companies under Allied control, have recently diverted shipments from Germany. Many observers believe Dr. Clodius will present plans for increasing the exploitation of the Rumanian oilfields, which will have the important provision that all the additional oil would go to Germany. Reuter’s Agency learns from a reliable London source that a party of German officers passed through Rumania with the object of stirring up trouble in the Middle East. All are reported to have served in the Middle East in the last war. They are travelling under assumed names, and most of them are disguised as businessmen.

Orchard Workers —Slightly higher rates of pay for orchard workers, ranging from about a penny an hour to 2/6 a week, are provided in the agricultural workers’ extension order, 1940, which is published with last night’s Gazette.