Evening star., 1940-02-22
The Cockpit


Indications accumulate that the
Near East, cradle of the first World
war and cockpit of Europe for more
than half century, is steadily
being seeded as the acreage to
which an extension of the Anglo
Franco German Russian conflict
presently may be extended. Tur-
Keys now publicly acknowledged
military preparations are declared
fatty to be undertaken solely with
view to repelling any attack against
the Balkans, from whatsoever quar-
ter launched.
Turkey will enter the war the
day foreign power marches into
the Balkans" the authoritative news
paper Yeni Sabah Of Istanbul warns.
That the Turks would throw them
selves into the fray on the side OF
the western allies is foregone con-
clusion because of the mutual aid
alliance with Great Britain and
France. The strength Turkey would
be able instantly to employ is re-
f1ected by the announcement that
she has an estimated modified force
OF 35O,000 men under arms and a
potential strength of another 1,O0O,-
600, which could be automatically
co-ordinated with the $4,000 troops
the British and French now have
assembled in Egypt, Palestine, Syria
and other Near Eastern areas.
AS the underlying purpose OF a
Near Eastern campaign would be
to compel the Germans to divert
divisions from the western front or
Poland, Czecho-Slovakia and Aus
tria, the necessity to face an Anglo
French-Turkish army of a million,
more or less, in the Balkans would
require rapid and drastic reforma-
ton OF Nazi strength in Western
Europe and seriously disarray any
plans the Berlin general staff may
have for total war" in the spring.
Rumania would be called upon to
bear the brunt of a war trans
planted into the Balkans. The
Turks declare roundly that any Ger
man attack in the Balkans would
automatically call them into action
because such aggression would. di-
rectly menace us. We shall not make
the mistake of waiting with folded
arms while the Balkans are crushed"
On their own part, the allies would
hope to attack the Germans on their
easternmost flank. Rumania, in that
event would be fated to enact the
1914-1918 role Of Belgium because of
the Nazis' increasingly urgent need
for possession of Rumanian oil.
Thus oil soon may be called upon
to reverse its metaphorical character
as calmer of troubled waters and
become the basic cause of new and
terrible turmoil in the waters of the
Near East, particularly the Black Sea.
Rumania's oil plight is aggravated
by the fact that many of her wells
are under Anglo-French control.
Turkey, with Near East hostilities
in prospect, announces plans to
spend $15,000,000 of her recently
granted glo-French loan for rapid
construction of a war port at Eregli,
on the Black Sea, where the Turks,
except at the Bosporus, are with
out harbor adequate for naval base
purposes.
That Turkey is girding her loins
is further revealed by this weeks
dismissal of hundreds of Russian
technical experts who have long
been employed in Turkish industry
under Moscow agreement. This
action follows recent expulsion of
German technical experts from
Turkish national defense industries
and the confiscation of the German
owned Krupp shipyard at Istanbul.
Signs multiply that Mars is at
length about to take his bloody way
through "the back door to Europe"
The issue of the var may we'll turn
on the outcome of his venture.