BALKANS FUTURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25210, 24 May 1945, Page 5

BALKANS FUTURE

COMMUNIST TREND AIM TO SEIZE POWER DISQUIETING PROSPECTS LONDON, May 22 While it is undesirable to draw general conclusions, developments in the Balkans point to the existence of a carefully preconceived plan to establish a Communist regime of a similar kind in every country on the Peninsula, states the Times Istanbul correspondent. The first step is to secure such key positions as of .Justice and ot the Interior, with control of police and gendarmerie. Ihe next step ;s to terminate political opponents and break up kindred parties which might become rivals o4' the party seizing power and then be increased in strength by the adhesion of people prompted to join from fear or opportunism. The correspondent asserts that this process has been carried out in Bulgaria, where public lite today is under complete Communist sway. The real ruler of Bulgaria is not the head of the Government. Georghiev, but a woman, Tsola Dragoitc-heva, secretary of the Communist Party, whose orders are final and undisputed. The first consequence «f Communist ascendance has been the extermination, of political opponents through trials by people's courts and other means. At least two persons in each of SOOO villages have also been murdered. The method used in Rumania is almost the same, except that the pace is slower than in Bulgaria. The Communists hold the .Ministries of .Justice and the Interior and control the police. The general prospect in the Balkans i> disquieting. It was hoped that the resistance movements against the Axis would result in co-operation between the progressive parties continuing after the war. That hope has been disappointed by Communist extremists with the result that, as in Greece, people in other Balkan countries are obsessed by the fear of Communism and almost instinctively are moving toward the Right, although they do not dare show their feelings openly.