GERMAN TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 December 1943, Page 3

GERMAN TROOPS

MOVED TO TURCO-BULGAR FRONTIER

SPECULATION REGARDING OTTOMAN POLICY.

AND POSSIBLE ENTRY INTO WAR

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, December 6. German troops have been moving to the frontier between Turkey and Bulgaria following on the Church ill-Roosevelt-Stalin talks, says the British United Press Stockholm correspondent, quoting reports reaching Hungarian circles in Stockholm.

This is the first Nazi reaction to revived speculation that Turkey is likely to enter the war on the side of the Allies. German troop movements were noted’throughout the weekend. The main concentrations were reported in the Chaskova area, about 40 miles west of the Turkish border. The Associated Press Cairo correspondent reports that some weeks before the Big Three arrived in Teheran, the Germans dropped a number of parachutists and saboteurs in Iran, six of whom were still at large at the date of the meeting. Because of this, elaborate safety measures were taken. Tanks and armoured cars patrolled the streets of Teheran and thousands of heavily armed troops, in addition to scores of Ogpu, secret service and intelligence agents, were on duty. A heavy and complete air cover was also provided. “The atmosphere of the conference was one of extreme cordiality,” adds the correspondent. “It was general knowledge that the Stalin and Churchill personalities sometimes clashed during their last meeting in Moscow, but Teheran is described as an intimate type of conference in which the general atmosphere was most friendly. President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin got along famously from the outset.”