Evening star., 1940-07-09
New Nazi-Red Deal
Feared After Farley
involving Balkans
Pressure on Turkey Is
= Reported Topic of
Talks at Ankuru
BY LELAND STOWE,

r SnIdkU bdllS NEWS TUIGlSu SOIItSpOHucHt.
Z BUCHAREST, July EVERY
Balkan capital has been electrified,
= and most of them have been dis"
: mayed. by this mornings news of
= the siX-hour conference at Ankara
. between the Nazi and Soviet Am
: bassadors,
i The very fact this meeting oc-
Cured and that it lasted such a
4 long time serves as a sharp warn
) ing that the day of reckoning is
/. fast approaching for the Turks But
5 1t also arouses grave fears in every
subject state" real or prospective,
from Hungary all the way to Bag
dad, capital of Iraq.
It is Immediately feared that an
s other big Berlin Moscow deal may
be on. If so, it would affect the
8 future status of most Balkan coun-
+ tries and eventually might influence
j large part of the Moslem world
! in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Southern
/. Arabia. Chancelleries and embassies
in this corner of Europe are buzzing
with speculation of this sort.
Quite aside from what may be
exaggerated speculation, there can
be no doubt that Hitler's Herr Won
! Papen and Stains Comrade Teren-
tiev talked Turkey-meaning how
and when the Turks had better fall
into line.
Stain Ghost-Writing Seen.
The first hint of this came Sum-
day night when the Moscow radio
suddenly took over and re-echoed
the recriminations against Turkey
which had just been published in
the Nazis' latest white paper dis
closures" Balkan officials are now
inclined to believe either that Ber-
Inns white paper was proofread in
g Moscow, or else that Josef Stain
may have done some ghost writing
on the Turkish section of it.
The Won Papen~Terentiev inter-
view indicates clearly that Nazi
Germany intends to defend its own
interests and prestige in Turkey
and the Moslem world. Berlin may
join Moscow in putting pressure on
.9 : lIlC L ul NO dllNl may o6iSS NPOiA
program for some more Nazi-
Soviet map-carving here or there
in the Balkan-Near Eastern zone.
But Fuehrer Adolf Hitler is not
leaving the SovietS free hand to
settle with the Turks alone. Some
people even wonder if the Nazis are
not double-dealing again. Maybe
they want to help the Stalinists
scare the Turks so badly that the
Turks will finally be glad to turn
their backs on Russia and sell
themselves to Berlin.
Hitler does not mind very much
what the Moscow regime picks up"
now in the Balkans, it seems, espe-
cially If he can put the brakes on
Soviet expansion in few vital
spots-because Hitler and his army
chiefs are now convinced that they
can knock out the Red Army and
Red air force almost as easily as
they knocked out Poland.
Army Declared Overestimated.
After three weeks in Turkey I
have emerged with the conviction
that Turkish armed strength has
been very considerably overesti-
mated by the outside world and also
overballyhooed by Turkeys former
Anglo-F French allies. The Turkish
land forces undoubtedly constitute
an excellent army of 1920 model,
but Turkeys tank and mechanized
forces are limited and her air force
Is both small and very spotty in per-
formance. Foreigners agree that the
Turks are poor mechanics and
clumsy with machines.
These facts are we'll known both
TO Russians and to Germans. The
truth is that Berlin and Moscow only
feared Turkey when Gen. Maxine
Weygand's French Army stood be-
hind the Turks in Syria, next door,
and when an Allied Near Eastern
air force of 1900 planes or more
could be rushed to the protection OF
the Dardanelles
It is significant that Moscow be-
gan to put pressure on Turkey only
after Gen. Eugene Mittlehauser had
decided to order his French troops
III SNIld W LAY oOWI tIlCl4 al lilos
When Gen. Mittlehauser capitu-
lated, the Kremlin lost all worries
about Turkish power to resist
simply because 1000 or 5000 planes
are a lot better than the Turks 500
planes; also because Russian pilots
are certainly much more capable
than the average Turkish aviator.
In Ankara and Istanbul you are
told that the Turks have a splendid,
old-fashioned army, but they are
lamentably weak in handling mod
ern weapons. This is why Turkey
had to have British and French sup
port in order to be posing as the
guardian of the Dardanelles.
Now that the Allied support has
been destroyed, Germany and Soviet
Russia are not at all worried about
Having to fight the Turks.
(copyright. 1910. by Chicaso Daily News.)