NOTICE TO QUIT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21576, 12 February 1940, Page 7

NOTICE TO QUIT

Turks Dismiss Nazi

Technicians

“Spring Is Coming’’

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright

LONDON, February 9.

The Turkish Government to-day dismissed 100 German technicians employed at the War and Naval Ministries an I gave them 48 hours’ notice to quit the country.

Officials state that no German in future will be employed in Stateowned industries. This will involve a further several hundred. These measures, it is declared, were taken in accordance with the powers voted by the National Assembly to the Government for the protection of national defence.

The Istanbul correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that it is reliably stated that the dl nissal of the Germans is the outcome of the discovery of a wide-spread German sabotage plot in the Near r t. In Istanbul, Turkish marines occupied the German-owned Krupp shipyards on the Golden Hom. The Turkish Government has announced the dismissal of twenty German naval engineers and technicians who were equipping Turkish submarines in these yards. Numerous German residents, particularly business men, have left Istanbul in recent days. Other Seizures Expected According to reliable sources, Turkey will reject the protect, which, it is understood, the German Ambassador (von Papen) has been instructed to make concerning the seizure. The only explanation forthcoming from Turkish official quarters is cryptic; "Lipring is coming.'' It is expected that the seizure of other German property will follow. It is also learned that hundreds of German experts employed in Turkey will be discharged and sent to Germany. These include technicians in factories, idvlsers to the Government, and professors in Istanbul University and Ankara Agricultural College. Germans have always been numerous throughout Turkey, and had almost a monopoly of some businesses until the outbreak of the war.

Speculation has been aroused by a speech by the Prime Minister of Greece (General Metaxas), in which he said: “Difficult times momentarily threaten us. The door is open to Hungary and Bulgaria to join us in encountering the storm that is coming." An apparently inspired article in the Turkish press, referring to General Weygand’s review, says: “The Allies have counted the possibility of a Russian attack across the Balkans towards the Dardanelles. The Turkish armies will give adequate support to the defending forces." It Is said that Germany regards the Turkish move in expelling Germans as Inspired by Britain and France in another attempt to broaden the conflict.