POLICY IN BALKANS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 10 March 1944, Page 5

POLICY IN BALKANS

VIEWS SAID TO DIFFER PRINCIPAL ALLIED NATIONS RUSSIA OPPOSED TO BRITISH ACTIVITIES Washington, March 9. While hopes persist that Turkey may yet reach an understanding with Britain and play an active role in the war, diplomatic quarters believe no important developments can be expected in the Balkans while the Channel invasion is pending. Joseph Harsch. in the “Christian Science Monitor,” says "The British decision to halt war shipments to Turkey is an indication of British disappointment over another possible opportunity which has not developed because of American and Russian wishes. The strengthening of Turkey as a springboard for a Balkan campaign has been a cherished British concept, as the Burma campaign has been a favoured American concept.

In a more direct sense, the shutting off of arms shipments to Turkey resulted from'Turkish dissatisfaction with the scheduled amounts, but behind that lay the fact that these scheduled amounts had been whittled down by higher priority undertaking to a point where there was little meaning in what was left. If there was to be no Balkans campaign the only value in strengthening Turkey was to consolidate Turkish goodwill. When the results in goodwill failed to justify the expenditure, the deal was called off.”

The Scripps-Howard Syndicate’s foreign editor, William Simms, says that rightly or wrongly there is ? deepseated impression in the United States that Russia as a whole is opposed to British and American activities in the Balkans, and Ankara. Washington and London have deferred to Soviet wishes. Russia is believed to have demanded concentration on a cross-channel invation, leaving the Balkans until such time as Russia was free to direct the enterprise. Supporting the British ideas, Simms says it is conceded that Turkey’s entrance into the war on the side of the Allies would be catastrophic fer Hitler, and the position in Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria would swiftly become hopeless. To meet the Balkan menace the Nazis would be compelled to weaken both the Eastern Front and the Atlantic Wall and wage a major war on three fronts, each remote from the other two.