INVASION AIDED BY TRAITORS

Southland Times, Issue 24420, 28 April 1941, Page 5

INVASION AIDED BY TRAITORS

Fifth Columnists In

Yugoslavia

(Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 26. Mr C. L. Sulzberger, correspondent of The New York Times in the Balkans, declares that the invasion of Yugoslavia was greatly aided by Fifth Columnists. Within 36 hours of the invasion traitors had cut almost every important communication in south Serbia. The Yugoslav _ armies were unable to get in touch with each other and actually evacuated the Monastir Gap before the Germans were anywhere near, thus enabling a speedy German advance outflanking the British line. The Yugoslavs planned to attack the Italians in Albania, where the Greeks were ready for an offensive, but inefficient troop concentrations spoiled the plan. The offensive to Albania never actually began. The Greeks were forced to withdraw from part of Albania in order to co-operate in the new Allied defence line based on the assumption that the Monastir Gap would remain closed.

Finally, the majority of the Greek generals favoured capitulation, feeling that Greece had already done her part honourably. Nevertheless, she kept on fighting and thousands of her soldiers died in order' to give the British a fighting chance to escape. A message from Cape Town states that General Smuts, in a broadcast, said that some people appeared depressed by the turn of events in the Balkans. “They forget that in the last

war the position of the Allies in that quarter was far worse. Yet the Allies were finally victorious. This war won’t be settled in the Balkans. “With the United States and her goodwill and vast resources behind us, we may look forward with steadfast confidence.”

The Daily Herald’s Istanbul correspondent says that it is reliably reported that Turkey has refused Germany’s offer of Grecian Thrace in return for the control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.