BULGARIA NEXT?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25625, 28 August 1944, Page 4

BULGARIA NEXT?

The avowed readiness of Bulgaria to withdraw from an alliance which has long been distasteful and now threatens to become suicidal will cause no surprise. But the conditions of Rumania’s capitulation cannot necessarily be read as a precedent. The Soviet official declaration makes clear that Rumania has been offered terms that could be regarded as generous. In return for Rumanian assistance in waging war against the Germans and Hungarians the Soviet has offered Rumania independence and the restoration of the Transylvanian territory which was transferred to Hungary in 1940 under the Hitler-imposed Vienna Award. The Rumanians would, of course, be expected to acquiesce in the restoration to the Soviet of the Bessarabian territories that were ceded in July, 1940. At the moment it is less than clear whether Russia has written these terms unilaterally, or in cooperation with the western Allies; the presumption must be that the offer now made, and apparently accepted by Rumania with alacrity, is substantially in terms of that placed before Prince Barbu Stirbey, when, acting for King Michael, he visited Cairo in March to consult Allied representatives. The immediate strategic advantages for the Red Army of Rumanian co-operation are sufficient argument for the presentation of terms of a nature indicated by Mr Churchill some months ago in his description of them as generous. There can be no doubting the anxious interest with which the people of Bulgaria have viewed the collapse of their fellow-collabora-tionists to the north. Of all the Balkan races they have had, traditionally, the most sympathy with Russia, as opposed to the European Powers to the west. They now find themselves becoming enclosed on three sides by forces hostile to the Axis and actively threatening the frontiers of their country, while to the west is Jugoslavia, whose partisan army, under Marshal Tito, is campaigning vigorously for a junction with the Soviet armies. When, last March, the Bulgarian regents visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden, preceded in dutiful procession by ,a

Rumanian delegation and followed by the Hungarian dictator, Admiral Horthy, it was not' necessary to believe that they were seeking to strengthen Bulgaria’s collaboration with the Axis. They were simply being informed of the role their country must play in defence of Festung Europa. But the position has since been changed dramatically by the successes of Allied arms on all fronts against Hitler. The reports of the withdrawal of Bulgarian troops from Jugoslavia, where they have been making their country no friends among neighbours who now await liberation from the Nazi yoke, are not incredible. Neither are the reports of German withdrawals from Bulgaria. With the Red Army pressing southward in Rumania, presumably towards the Galatz Gap in the lower Carpathians, and with Ploesti and the passes through the Transylvanian Alps as objectives, Bulgaria could become a liability rather than an asset to Hitler, even although its loss would open the way to Allied contact with Greece and Jugoslavia. It must remain to be seen what terms Bulgaria may expect, now that a desire to get out of the war has been expressed. In view of the extent to which Bulgaria has supported the Axis, and the diminishing value of a Bulgarian volte-face, these may not be over-generous, though the Allies may be prepared to recognise that, apart from Axis pressure, a totalitarian-style Government rather than the will of the people has been the chief factor in inducing Bulgarian ' collaboration with the forces of Nazi-ism.