NEARER WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24721, 25 September 1941, Page 7

NEARER WAR

RUSSIA AND BULGARIA RELATIONS STRAINED CURFEW IMPOSED IN SOFIA (Rcc. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON. Sept. 23. There are many indications that Bulgaria Is slipping nearer war with Russia. The newspapers in Sofia strongly criticise Russia and describe the RussianBulgarian relations as mold strained. The Ankara correspondent of the Associated Press says a complete black-out has been ordered in Varna and Burgas, and a curfew has been imposed in Sofia. The correspondent added that the American Minister in Sofia, Mr George Earle, warned the Bulgarian editors that if Bulgaria chose the wrong side it would go hard with her after the British and American victory. The Moscow radio said that 400,000 Bulgax’ian troops were already mobilised and German engineers were pushing on the construction of special military roads. Reuter’s Ankara correspondent says travellers from Bulgaria report a continuation of military preparations and the Germans are commandeering railways. Foreigners are closely watched, the Gestapo particularly paying attention to the staffs of the Russian Legation and consulates who are followed everywhere. The Ankara correspondent of the British t?nited Press says the Bulgarian .and German General Staffs are holding close consultations and the withdrawal of Bulgarian troops from the Turkish frontier indicates their use elsewhere. Fairly widespread disorders are reported from Bulgaria. The artillery barracks in Sofia are reported to have been destroyed by fire. The IstanbuTcorrespondent of The Times says Herr von Papen’s arrival, accompanied by his wife, may be taken to mean that his policy of the velvet-gloved fist has prevailed, for which reason Germany, at least in the immediate future, will not take a harsh move against Turkey. This is in line with recent Gennan propaganda, although the Wilhelmstrasse insists that the presence of German troops in tWe Caucasus would create a new situation, to which Turkey should adapt herself and shape her policy accordingly. The Wilhelmstrasse has not attempted to minimise the gravity of the situation. RULED BY TERROR OCCUPIED COUNTRIES BRUTAL NAZI METHODS (Rec, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 22. Evidence is reaching London of the brutality of the German methods of “ occupation ” in different parts of Europe. The German News Agency states that 50 Croats were shot at Zagreb as “ intellectual perpetrators ” of an explosion in a telephone exchange, in which several Gennan soldiers were injured. From Belgium comes news that 25 Belgians are held as hostages at Tournai for the killing of two German policemen on September 17. They will be executed if the perpetrators are not discovered within 10 days. .The Germans announce that in future five hostages will be shot for every act of violence- against German 7 soldiers, and all Belgians now in prison will be treated as such hostages. German military headquarters in Lille announce the execution of three Frenchmen, while four fresh death sentences have been passed in Paris.

The so-called German new order there has all the marks of the old ruthlessness, which Nazi mentality imagines is the only possible treatment of nations writhing under alien domination, and its failure is admitted by this resort to the timehonoure*d method of brutality, which is likely to make the oppressed populations more determined to bring eventual retribution on the Nazis.

German military headquarters in Lille announce that the death sentences which had been passed by a court martial, held on August 23, on the Communists, Alfred Delattres, Marcel Deify, and Andre Lefebvre, for repeated crimes with arson and explosives, had been carried out. The condemned men were shot. The British United Press states that at least 295 persons, including several women, have been executed by the Germans in occupied countries since the beginning of August. Most of the shootings occurred in Jugoslavia and Poland, and 41 were slaughtered in Paris alone. JUGOSLAVIA AFLAME GUERRILLA WAR RAGING (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 24. Guerrilla war is raging over almost the whole of Jugoslavia. Fierce fighting is in progress in the vicinity of the main railways, and even the surroundings of Zagreb are unsafe according to news trickling from the Balkans, says the Istanbul correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Widespread disturbances began three weeks ago, and 66 executions have been carried out in Croatia alone since Friday. The victims were shot or hanged immediately after they had been sentenced. Two men were executed merely for not reporting to the authorities. Two thousand women and children have arrived at Zagreb. Their menfolk are officially reported to have been wiped out by Bosnian Communists.

The Zagreb correspondent of the Associated Press says Serbian outlaws killed six Croat officers and 98 soldiers who demanded their surrender.