Evening star., 1954-08-09
Tito Is Aligned
With NAT0 by
Pact in Balkans
YugosIoviu, Greece
And Turkey Join to
Resist Russians
BY the Associated Press

BLED, Yugoslavia. Aug. o.
Yugoslavia. Turkey and Greece
signed military pact today
aimed at Welding Balkan wall
against any aggression by Rus
sia or her Cominform satellites.
The alliance was signed by the
foreign ministers of the three
powers--Koca Popovic of Yugo-
slavia, Stephan Stephanopoulous
of Greece and Faud Koprulu of
Turkey.
The historic move implements
the Balkan friendship treaty
which President Marshal Tito's
government signed in 1853 with
it's two neighbors who are men,
bers of the North Atlantic AL
lance and brings Communist
Yugoslavia a step closer to the
Western orbit.
1t also links Yugoslavia indi-
rectly with the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, although
she is not a NATO member.
Pact Cautiously Worded.
Cautiously worded, the pact
pledges the three countries al
legiance to the United Nations
and protects Greek and Turkish
obligations to NATO without
committing Yugoslavia to a di-
rect part in that security pro-
gram.
At the same time, however, the
new treaty clearly aimed at ar
ranging military collective in
surance against the threat of
Cominform aggression, and was
another step by Yugosiavia to
closer collaboration with the
West since its fued started with
Moscow in 1948.
In pooling armed forces of the
three nations that may total
more than l million men, the
alliance holsters one OF the soft
spots in Western Europe's de-
fenSeS.
Turkey has. a standing army of
$50, 900 and Greece has more than
1000 men under arms. There
are no official figures on the size
of Tito's army, but it has been
estimated Tito has some 100000
men under arms.
Delayed Several Months.
The, defense alliance was to
have been signed several months
ago. but it was delayed-mainly
because of the bitter dispute be-
tween Italy and Yugoslavia over
the strategic free territory of
Trieste. The Trieste issue is
finally reported near agreement.
Once this issue is resolved, the
three Balkan partners are ex-
pected to try to get Italy to join
them, thus extending the defense
chain formally from the eastern
end of the Mediterranean to the
Swiss Alps.
Greece and Turkey, both linked
to Italy by NATO, have expressed
their desire to see their Latin
neighbor join the Balkan en-
tente.
Military observers expect the
alliance to result in a more
strategic shifting of the three
nations armies. Most of them
have felt there has been an un-
due concentration of Tito's army
in Central Yugoslavia opposite
Romania's Transylvania, placed
there so it could move north or
south. This left the south ex-
posed.
The alliance will also open the
way for a freer exchange of in
formation between the partners
enabling them to map a COM
mon strategy and to strengthen
their mutual defenses.
BY signing the document,
Tito's Communist government
agreed to join its two Balkan
partners to determine what ac-
ton should be taken in case
OF aggression against any of
NATO's members even though
Greece and Turkey are not at
tackled directly.
VII Support U. N.
The pact's major points:
l. Repledged allegiance to the
U. N. and promised to abstain
from use of arms in any way
incompatible with that organ
ization's aims.
2. Agreed upon collective de-
fense If any one of the three
(See PACT. A-6)