ACTIVITY ROUND BLACK SEA

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21038, 14 February 1940, Page 6

ACTIVITY ROUND BLACK SEA

The belief that the lands that border the Black Sea may become an important, if not decisive battleground, in diplomacy and in armed clashes, is strengthened by the news that Germany and Russia are co-operating in a drive for economic domination in that area. German engineers are reported to be erecting fortifications at Odessa, Mariupol and Novorossisk in the Ukraine and at the Russian port of Batum in the Caucasus. Forts are also being constructed on the Russian-Rumanian frontier, and Germany is reorganising shipping services in the Black Sea.

All this activity is aimed ostensibly at promoting trade in the area and protecting the trade routes, but if Germany and Russia run true to form their advances portend political and military domination es well for the Balkan countries. That conclusion is inescapable, for Slither Germany nor Russia will be a welcome guest in any of the States concerned, especially when they have to trade on terms which are unsatisfactory to the sellers. If Germany and Russia do succeed in dominating the Black Sea countries’ trade, Turkey will be under no misapprehension regarding her future. Turkey controls the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, and they are the only B'lack Sea outlets to the sea trade routes of the world. Turkey must hold those straits or lose the place she has taken amongst the nations. It is on the shores of the Black Sea also that the German-Russian alliance may be split asunder. There can be little doubt that Stalin in his greed envisages the Black Sea as his own particular domain. But Germany’s need of plunder from the Balkans makes it imperative for her sustenance that Russia should not dominate the position. Between them they promise great travail for all the Balkan States. It is impossible to imagine that even a German-Russian victory over the Allies would settle the issue between the two countries in this vital sphere of influence. Their interests, economically and politically, must eventually clash. No doubt both Hitler and Stalin have their own visions of the future, and it is certain that they do not provide for anything like an equal division of the spoils of aggression.