the signature of the Turko-German friendship pact Authoritative diplomatic sources today Ankara; Jone 2. a
at this moment of steadily increasing Russo-German tension after a fortnight's fruitless negotiations came after the German Ambassador, Herr Franz von Papen, had insisted that the Turks take this step to safeguard themselves against Russia, These sources understood that the German Ambassador had explained that Germany had resisted Russia's proposals for joint Russo-German pressure against Turkey as far back as the occasion of the trip to Berlin by the Soviet Foreign Commissar, M, Viacheslav Molotov, Diplomats here agreed that Germany must move militarily within the next fortnight, and possibly in a few days, They were convinced that the move would be aimed against Russia, They believed that the German preparations were too great and complete—involving even the moving of a large portion of the Luftwaffe to the eastern frontiers and thus making impossible large-scale raids on Britain—to be merely a pretext for a screen to a sudden, unexpected move, Well-informed Rumanian sources here said that preparations along the German frontier had reached a pitch where a march into Russia could be carried out at any movant, Germany and Italy were reported here to have sent Axis families living in Bucharest to the country—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.