Evening star., 1941-03-05

known to be perturbed over the fact
that the Germans have been settling
down in their Rumanian base as
though for long stay. Heavy
permanent barracks have been built,
airfields are being smoothed and
built with hangers as though for
extensive operations and the Ger
mans have taken over the planned
British naval base at Mamma on
the Black Sea.
Several competent military au-
thorities here. taking what they
believed to be long view, have
considered the whole Nazi campaign
in the Balkans not primarily as an
Italian rescue expedition, but as pre-
liminary establishment for an east
ward thrust at the Ukraine and the
South Russian oil fields.
Rumanians Fear Soviet.
Asked whether the Rumanian oil
wells were not enough to fuel the
German mechanical war, one mill
tary expert said, They are. drop
of oil on hot stove"
Among the Rumanians, the major
reason for tolerance of the Nazi
occupation is a deep and unshakable
fear of extension of the Soviet
seizure of Bessarabia, and this is
accentuated by the fact that the
Russians have given their new state
the name of Moldavia, the same as
its Rumanian opposite.
If the NaziS are still not formally
committed to war against Greece,
it is considered probable here that
German action will be, unless Hit
ler'S direct overtures of peace to
Turkeys President, Gen. Ismet
Inonu, are successful, to try to sus-
pend the Damoclean sword once
more so that it threatens Turkey
as well as Greece. Thus, Hitler
would recover the drivers seat in
the war of nerves.
AS for the Soviet criticism of the
Bulgarian press, which has not
seemed to the writer to be con-
ceivably unfriendly to the Kremlin,
the Russians apparently mean to
suffocate such talk as that of Bull
garian Premier Bogdan Philoff be-
fore the Sobranje (ParliamenD in
which the anticipated opposition
questions were excluded from the
debate by his saying that the So
Wet Union approved the new line
of Bulgarian foreign policy"
Apparently, this statement was
based on assurances from Berlin
rather than Moscow, and its de-
nial by the Soviets now has an
undermining effect upon the posi- |
ton of the cabinet. Although the
Communist party is outlawed, the
agrarian leaders are in prison as
anti-Nazis, and seven-eighths of
the Sobranje members approve the
entrance of the German troops, it is
considered here that Bulgaria is
veering once more towards her ira
ditional pattern of having a Rus
sian and a Germany party, with a
fringe of Anglophile Liberals and
an underground Communist oppo-
sition.
Nazi planes were seen over the
city today again, and artillery and
Bulgarian troops with full cam
paign equipment marched through
the boulevards hoarsely singing
Slavic battle songs. Nazi infantry
men were still scarce, but civilian
dressed officers wearing salt and
pepper topcoats and carrying brief
cases were plentiful.
After a protest by the American
Legation on behalf of Christopher
Janeff. imprisoned translator for
the Chicago Daily News, the Bull
garian Foreign Office said he was
being accused of subversive con-
nections with the Agrarian party,
a peasant democratic movement,
and that he would be examined and
either freed or sentenced soon. The
spokesman left unexplained the
seizure of an American flag at the
time of Janeff's arrest, but stated
that the police did not name his
employment by an American news
paperman among their still unspeci-
fled charges.
copyright, 1941. Chicago Daily News Inc)