The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-26


 According to diplomatic cables, usually accurate, here are the de- tails of the campaign.
 One look at the map shows that the conquest of the entire Cau- casus grows increasingly difficult as the NaZis enter the towering peaks of the central region. Here Hitler can advance only with ter rifle losses.
 Therefore, 1t would be easier to go by boat from Varna in Bull garia, Constanza in Rumania, and Sevastopol, past the towering mountain ranges, and land at the Turkish ports of Trebizond and Samsun. These connect by rail with other parts of the Near East, and a Nazi army could then get in behind the Russian army now entrenched in the Caucasus moun- tains.
 Simultaneous with this attack on Turkey, NaA troops in the islands of Greece would drive against Syria. Simultaneously also, von Rommel would launch another attack on Egypt.
 Thus Hitler would aim a three-pronged drive against various parts of the Near East all at one time. And so far as ascertained, this campaign is scheduled for around Sept. IS. ALLIED PREPARATIONS
 Naturally, feverish activities have been taking place on the Allied side to prepare for this, and this was one reason for the giant British convoy to the Medi- terranean-Which unfortunately got knocked about so badly that it had to stop at Malta instead of attempting a landing behind von Rommels lines.
 Another means of heading off the Nazi three -prOnged drive would be to land Russian troops at Turkish ports Samsum and TrebizOnd to meet the Nazi invasion.
 However, Turkish Premier Sar- acoglu has had some unhappy conversations with the Russians in the past and is not very en- thusiastic about having Russian troops on Turkish soil.
 His memory goes back to the early autumn of 1899, just after the war started, when he was Foreign Minister of Turkey and was summoned to Moscow along with the Films, the Estonians, the Latvians and other Russian neigh bors. At that time, Stalin pro- posed that three divisions of the Red Army be placed at Canak- Kale on the Dardanelles to guard the entrance to the Black Sea.
 This meant that Russia would virtually take over one of the most important waterways in the world, waterway which Turkey has kept through the centuries despite the Crusades and Bri- tlsh- Russian attempts to wrest it away.
 So Foreign Minister Saracoglu, after several conferences with Stalin and Molotoff, packed his bags and went home. He em- phatically refused to permit Rus sian troops guard the Dardanelles.
 Since then Saracoglu has be- come prime minister of Turkey. But he still remembers that talk i,' Moscow in 1889. and he is still suspicious of Russian troops on Turkish soil. In fact if it had not been for the Moscow talk he might be more amenable to pre- pairing in advance for Hitler's greatest effort in the Near East. SOLDIERS XMAS SHOPPING
 'DO your Christmas shopping carly" is more apropos than ever this year, if you have relatives serving overseas.
 Officials in the Army's Postal Service are preparing for the greatest volume of Yuletide mail- ing to troops in history-far sur- passing the past war = and they frankly admit that they won't be able to handle 1t unless the public coopQrates.
 So PoStal Service chiefs pass