Evening star., 1940-12-26
Germans Reported Speeding Up
Rumonion War Goods OUTPUT:
100000 Fresh Soldiers on Woy
Showdown Seen in
Balkan Conflict
Of Interests
Ey the Associated Press.

Ey the Associated Press.
BUDAPEST. Dec. 26.-Nazi lead
ers in Rumania were reported in
diplomatic dispatches today to have
ordered big speedup in Rumania's
manufacture of war materials as
crowded trains, carrying the van
guard of some 100000 fresh Ger
man troops, rolled across Hungary
into the Balkan kingdom of King
Mihai.
The vast movement of troops with
artillery, bridge-building equipment,
tanks and other motorized vehicles,
stirred speculation on the possibility
of a showdown between powers with
conflicting interests in the Balkans.
The diplomatic dispatches from
Bucharest said two large Rumanian
industrial plants would manufacture
warplanes for Germany.
A submarine building yard already
In operation at Galati has been
ordered to increase its production,
the dispatches said.
New Minister Is Named.
The mass shifting of troops and
= the speed-up order conceded with
the appointment of Baron Manfred
Won Killinger. German minister to
Slovakia, to the same post in Ru-
mania. Informed sources said the
baron was prepared to rule Rumania
as virtual Nazi gauleiter district
leader.
Although Germany has taken no
hand in Rumania's civil administra-
ton thus far, diplomatic reports
from Bucharest asserted that the
Reich was prepared to take over
complete control.
Military experts estimated Ger
many already had pproximately
100000 soldiers in Rumania. Ger
mans and Rumanians said they were
guarding vital sources of oil sup
ply and training the Rumanian
Army in modern methods of war
fare.
First official disclosure of the new
massed Nazi movement came in an
announcement by the Hungarian
railway administration that passen-
ger service would be specially re-
stricted" to clear the way for passage
of 1,160 troop trains-at the rate of
80 to 40 daily-between now and
January 81
because of the holiday official
sources in Berlin were not avail
able for comment There was no
comment from military or polit-
ical quarters in London)
Experts Return Home.
The disclosure followed closely
news that Russian, German. Italian
and Rumanian experts who had
been comforting nearly two months
In Bucharest finally had gone home
after failing to decide which nation
or group of nations should control
the strategically important mouths
of the Danube River-the Reichs
supply line to the East.
Officially, it was said the meet
ings would be resumed at the end
of January, but informed sources
declared there was a wide breach
between the axis delegates on the
one hand and the Russian repre-
sentatives on the other, with the
latter firmly insisting on Soviet
Russian control of the Danube out
lets.
Reports from Bucharest quoted
Soviet diplomats as declaring open
" that the Red Army was prepar-
ing to occupy the mouths of the
Danube and the Rumanian Province
Of Moldavia as far west as the Sire
tul River after the first of the year.
The Rumanian police sought to
stem an exodus of Moldavian resi-
dents by denying what they called
these "alarmist rumors"
Speculation on Moves.
Diplomatic sources speculated that
the new German troop movements
might be connected closely with the
Danube dispute-perhaps designed
to reinforce the Nazi position by
q show of strength.
The same sources, however, also
saw the possibility of action against
Turkey in German "Drang mach
OSten" (drive to the eaSt), or that
the Nazis were contemplating aid
to the hard-pressed Italians by at
tacking Greece through Bulgaria.
The theory that the Nazi troop
movements concerned Russia was
given some color by reports of trav-
elers from Germany, who said rail
traffic in the eastern part Of the
Reich was being disrupted by the
(See GERMANS, Page A-6.)