Evening star., 1941-01-17
Nazis Reported Fixing
Yugos|av Terms for
Aid in Balkan Drive
Protection OF Neutrality
Suid to Be Guaranteed
Under Hitler Offer
By GEORGE WELLER.

(Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent
BELGRADE, Jan. 17.-Adolf Hit
Ter has formulated his needs and
named his price for Yugoslavia's CO.
operation in the Balkan campaign
now being prepared, according to
word received here from YugosIav
sources in Berlin.
The German terms for South Slav
partnership in the Forthcoming at
tack, which apparently have not yet
been officially communicated to this
government, involve the use and ex-
tension of Yugoslavia's railroad sys-
tenn for transport of military sup
plies but not soldiers. The promised
reward is said to be the long coveted
Aegean outlet at Salonika and a
small fragment of Albania around
Scutari. presumably by arrange
ment with Italy
Hitler's purported terms were
communicated in confidential re-
pert to his local superiors by the
Berlin correspondent of a leading
Belgrade newspaper Under the
terms of the offer, Yugoslav neu-
trality would be respected and even
protected
The die-hard opposition of the
YugoSlav general staff to the intro
duction of German troops would be
scrupulously observed. The parti-
ton of Greece following the axis
victory would be the signal for gen.
eral reconstruction in the Balkans,
with YugoSlavia as the favored CEN
ter of German activity.
Praise for Yugoslavs.
The Nazis are said to have praised
the Yugoslavs as the only truly sta
bic Balkan people, with faint over
tones of dissatisfaction with Hun
garian and Rumanian railroad eff
fciency and Bulgarian political
pliancy.
The official spokesman said this
morning that no German offer or
inquiry had been received through
regular channels.
The German proposal is said to be
that the railroad line from the for
mer Austrian frontier through Lubl-
jana. Zagreb. Belgrade and Nish,
which is mostly two tracks wide,
should be brought to three tracks in
order to accommodate supply trains.
The extension would be paid for by
Germany, and the engineers and
technicians furnished as we'll as all
necessary additional rolling stock.
In this way the German supply
movements would interfere as little
as possible with the distribution
system of the three chief Yugoslav
cities in the northern half of the
country.
South of Nish, in the peppery
Macedonian country, where the
railroad is now only a single track
wide. the Germans are reported as
desiring to enlarge it to two tracks.
This combined three and two track
system, leading directly to the Greek
gateway at Gheveheli, might eventu-
ally make possible a direct attack
on Greek forces holding the shores
of Lake Ochrid, although such
possibility naturally is not discussed
in the German offer.
Advantage for Germans.
The advantage for the Germans
Of this plan is its direct connection
of their own and Italy's belligerent
border in the north with the south
ern fighting front. The complica-
tions involved in keeping the gov
ernlnents of Hungary, Rumania and
Bulgaria in the precise state of
Naziflcation necessary for orderly
preparation of difficult campaign,
checking sabotage without allowing
native resistance to break out, have
been multiplied seriously.
Having outfanked YugoSlavia by
placing an army at her rear and
having already linked up an Eastern
Balkan railroad sytem through three
countries, the Germans are ready
to ask for what they most desire:
Direct transit from their own borders
to the enemy's without the head
aches of consulting three Balkan
general staffs and manipulating
three fifth columS.
While popular reaction to the re-
ported German offer cannot be
gagged because the terms are un-
publiShable, and while the terms
themselves may be only an unofficial
feeler for more defnitive plan
to come, the discreet undercover
analysis of the plan now going on in
the capital takes a generally favor
able tone. The essential weakness
of the Yugoslav position is the lack
of any alternative to a German bid,
whether high or low,
Not Challenged by British.
Britain's navy, while active in the
southern Adriatic, is disarmed as
far as the central Balkans are con-
cerned. The reluctant drift of
into the German sphere
is not challenged at present by
British diplomacy or force. The
British predicament is neatly sum-
married by visit paid by the Bel
grade police to the offices of Brita-
nova, the British news propaganda
agency in the Balkans, which re-
suited last night in the sealing of its
Offices. 1t is still impossible to
ascertain the exact nature of the
charges, but the padlocking itself
was carried out by order of the
Mayor of Belgrade, possibly on
higher authority.
At the Foreign Office in Berlin
according to semiofficial
here, a YugoSlav correspond
ent was given several days sus-
pension of telephone facilities for
having communicated the news that
dictator, Gen. Ion
had been in conference
in Germany. Berlin correspondents,
it is said, were generally reminded
that in discussing the southeastern
sitzkrieg, they should avoid par
to this extent.
A new evening edition of the
Germanophile Vreme, however, a