Evening star., 1940-10-20
BALKANS HOPE FOR u. S. AID
Yueos|ovs, Greeks, Turks to Fight Despite Odds
By Constantine Bro,vn.

that there is a possibility of Turk,
troops coming to the assistance of IT,
Greeks. should the latter be hard presse,.
on the Salonika front.
The position of the traditionally wea'.
Greek army has changed. For the fir
time since the outbreak of the war in
Europe the British are in a position 70
offer more than lip service to the guar
anteed states"
British military experts are at present
in Greece-they have been there for the
past two Notwithstanding the Greek
general staff in the matter of defense.
There are reports, which cannot be con-
frmed at the moment for obvious rea.
sons, that some $4,000 Australian troops
have been sent to Greece These are
portion of the original army of the East
stationed at the outbreak of the war in
Syria. Furthermore, an important guam
tity Of tanks and artillery has reached
Greece from Britain.
War Materiel Sent.
In spite of the threat of an invasion
in the British Isles, the British general
staff was able to dispense with a guam
tity of tanks and artillery which it will
not need even if the Germans should
actually land in England. The tanks are
reported to have arrived fully equipped
and manned by men who have seen
good deal of fighting in Belgium and in
Flanders.
A certain amount of French war ma.
teriel, belonging to the former Army Of
the East, previously under Gen. Wey-
gandS command, also has been sent to
Salonika. This materiel was smuggled
out of Syria during the days of confusion
when the French leaders in the Levant
had not made up their minds whether
they would follow the Petain government
or continue to fight the Germans.
In short, the backbone of the Greek
army has been considerably stiffened by
goslavs, King George and his dictator,
Gen. Metaxas, have decided to fight for
Greece's independence.
The position of the Turks is somewhat
nouncementS from Ankara. Everything
indicates that the Turks will join the
Greeks, the Yugoslavs and the British in
the fight against the axis. But there is
a good deal of concern at Ankara re-
garding RusSia's attitude. The Turkish
Ambassador at Moscow has tried in vain
for the last three weeks to find out what
the Russian attitude would be in the
event of a German Italian and Balkan
British conflict.
There is no doubt that the three coun-
tries involved have sufficient man power
to worry the German-Italian invaders.
But once more the old story of bayonets
against tanks and lack of aviation
comes to the fore.
U. S. Intervention Hoped.
The boast of the Yugoslavs the Greeks
and the Turks that they can put in the
field at least 4,500000 men is correct. In
all likelihood they could muster 5000 900
men. But their war materiel is in part
antiquated and the lack of modern air.
planes is lamentable. 1t is doubtful
whether the three countries together
have at their disposal today more than
1000 modern planes. The old ones, of
which they have twice that number,
might just as we'll be non-existent.
Their anti-aircraft defenses are equally
deficient OF course, the Italian and the
German aviation can do little harm to
their cities. 1t is also true that weather
conditions will be great handicap to
the German and the Italian flyers. But
none of these three countries has modern
armament plants and they must rely on
what they can get from England and
possibly the United States to replace
their inevitably heavy losses.
In spite of these handicaps, it is more
than probable that Yugoslavia, Greece
and Turkey will put up a fight. They
don't hope to win single-handed. But
they fully expect to delay the axis force7
in the hope that something dramatic
may occur before the year is over And
that something dramatic" which is ex-
pected in the Balkan chancelleries, as
we'll as in London, is Americas full in
tervention in the world conflict
The stubborn resistance of the British
has encouraged the remaining free
Balkan states to an effort to maintain
their independence; the hope that the
United States may step into the affray
in the near future is giving them the
necessary courage to oppose force by
force, even though the odds are heavily
against them.