BALKAN PEACE FRONT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23554, 15 January 1940, Page 6

BALKAN PEACE FRONT

News of great moment comes from Sofia in the official announcement that complete agreement has been reached between Bulgaria and Turkey concerning the maintenance of peace in the Balkans and the guarding of Bulgarian neutrality. This development, virtually coinciding with Italy's pledge to defend Hungary against German or Russian aggression, raises a firm foundation for Balkan unity which eventually must prove of invaluable assistance to Britain and France in their conduct of the war. Already the Allied democracies have reason to congratulate themselves that they avoided precipitancy in their discussions with Moscow last year. It was Germany who rushed in to accept the voracious terms of the Kremlin and, in so doing, to antagonise practically the whole of the rest of Europe. Britain and France countered von Ribbentrop's diplomatic move through their alliance with Turkey and evidence is not lacking that they have found a 4 staunch and trustworthy friend. The last few months have witnessed a strong Turkish campaign to consolidate peace in the Balkans and to establish there a grouping of small nations, powerful enough, with Anglo-French assistance, to resist all comers. Realising that pro-Rus-sian feeling has been stronger in Bulgaria than in any other Balkan State, Germany has been actively endeavouring to spread dissension between Sofia and Angora, but once again Nazi diplomacy lias overreached itself. The position is made more interesting by virtue of the fact . that a commercial treaty between Italy and Bulgaria was signed recently, while Rumania, as well as Hungary, is sympathetic toward Italian leadership of a peace front in South-eastern Europe. Progress is apparently being made in , establishing friendly relations between Italy and Turkeyand, once this is accomplished, there should be an effective barrier against penetration by either Germany or Russia toward the Mediterranean and the East.