The Nome nugget., 1941-10-15
Turkey, Key To Russia
Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Cleveland Plain Dealer)
 With Syria, Iraq and Iran eliminated bases of Nazi operation thanks to Allied occupation, Ger many is employing new tactics to put the squeeze play on Turkey, the strategic key to the Black Sea southern Russia where Hitler's armies are adVanc- ing and the rich oil resources of the Caucasus region It is this object which Germany is furthering in bring ing pressure Bulgarian to become an active mill tary partner of the Axis.
 Bulgaria is important in the Nazi scheme only because of it's geographical position It has been under complete German domination for months. It's people, like all Balkan SlaVs, are strongly aware o their ra cial affinity iWth the Russians. Communism is that has meaning to them. They have given many indications of their dispeasure with the Nazi attack on Russia and consequence the German overlOrds have imprisoned thousands of Bulgarians.
 It is the king, the cabinet and the general staff, not the people, that the Germans seek to tie curely to their chariot in this endeavor to make Bull garia belgerent As means they hold out glitter ing promises to Tsar Boris He can have absolute naval command of the Black Sea- He has navy now, but Italy may furnish it. He can have undisputed trading rights in that and also a protectOrae over the Crimea The md-appearing Tsar Boris is great schemer He is ambitious He has survived many uprisingS against his rule, both popular and military The lure is he cannot resist. He will bow to Ger manyS bidding in this meekl ly he allowed the Wehrmacht to come into his country last spring
 Bulgaria, therefore, will be asked to join Ger many in a drive toward the Dardaneles. An effort will be made to resurrect Bulgar-Turkish enmities from the last century when the Outdn fueQ At the appropriate time the Thracan border of Eu- ropean Turkey will blaze. The Germans seem inn perVious to the fact that Bulgaria may blaze internal y too have other occupied countries. Their ndiff erence to this possibility is confession that they are hard pressed in Russia.
 This move will be coupled with pressure at An kara. Dr. Karl ClOdius, German trade missionary whose name spells disaster for every country he visits is in the Turkish capital trying to emplement the German Turkish trade treaty At the time Franz Von Papen, Hiters envoy to Ankara, and Hans Rhode military atache in Berlin, detailing what progress they have made in boring from within.
 Turkey S time has come. In the one-by-one method of the Germans the frontiers of the acknowledgement neutral Turkey have been reached. Turkey most like ly will remain free of German troops. Htlers armies could not advance across Anatolia toward the Cau- casus while Allied armies stationed along the Syrian IraQan and ranan frontiers of Turkey ready to strike What is sought is the diplomatic imprson ment of Turkey. There would be no fear that Turkey would observe the terms of the MontreauX Treaty governing the Dardanelles honor her treaty of friendship with Britain. drive by well as land could be made for the Baku oil fields. German armies in the southern Ukraine could be supported with sup plies and endorsements by sea much more easily than is now possible by land.
 The real decision in this development lies in An kara, not Sofia Allied diplomacy of the most skilfu sort is called for If Turkey deSerts-and her loyalty has been none too in the past-the Allied supply route to southern Russia is endangered the position in the Near East and North Africa is made precarious and greater burden in defeating Hitler is laid upon the Allies and the United States