MAY PROVE DIFFICULT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 9 December 1940, Page 5

MAY PROVE DIFFICULT

DISARMING OF IRON GUARDS CLASH PREDICTED [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] LONDON, 7th December. The disarmament of the Iron Guard, states an Istanbul message, may prove a difficult task because each member carries two revolvers and the organisation has many machine-guns. The army will possibly be called on to perform the task. German troops have joined the guard at General Antonescu’s residence. They are equipped with armoured cars and tanks. The Budapest newspaper “Pester Lloyd says that a clash between the Rumanian army and the Iron Guard is expected shortly. It is reported that the army is makl n ® rf f t U a 1I t P f* pa S“ ions fOT a show-down and that the Fourth Army Corps has been sent to Bucharest with a full complement of armed units. It seems clear now that the Rumahl an Tj a fi my t h3S been given Permission by H itler to crush the Iron Guard although the latter has been Hitler’s instrument in achieving many of his aims in Rumania. It is believed that Hitler realises that the entire country is against the 'lron Guard and that if it remains in power after the series of brutal murders which it has carried out, there is a danger of a national rising against it, led by the army Therefore after first regarding indulgently the actions taken by the Iron Guard and even sending a representative to the reburial of its leader M. Codreanu. Hitler has changed h ls mind and has ordered German troops to help the Rumanian army to suppress the organisation, which he had hitherto subsidised and fostered Bucharest was saved from civil war last week by the massing of Rumanian and German troops, but it is felt that there may be an outbreak at any moment, and the Iron Guard has by no means accepted its suppression Germany’s sole interest is to keep *he country and to see that she can get oil, which she urgently needs. Hence General Antonescu’s drastic decree.