(2 of 2)
Yugoslavia, confronted with the accomplished fact of Bulgaria's falling into the Nazi camp, found herself outflanked, and prepared to fall .in too. By invitation Yugoslavia's Premier Dragisha Cvetko-vitch and Foreign Minister Dr. Aleksandar Cincar-Markovitch went to Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat for a three-hour conversation. If Herr Hitler ranted, he wasted his breath. Premier Cvetkovitch speaks no German; Hitler's Interpreter Dr. Paul Schmidt does not echo the Führer's screams. And Foreign Minister Cincar-Markovitch, who speaks fluent German, is known to be the most patient man in Yugoslavia. Herr Hitler said: Yugoslavia would be wise to join the Axis. The two men said: We shall tell Regent Prince Paul what you say. Herr Hitler said: I should like Yugoslavia's assurance that she will do nothing if Germany invades Bulgaria and attacks Greece; I might like permission to send troops across Yugoslav soil to Greece; when I have won the war, I might give Yugoslavia Salonika and Northern Albania. The two said: We shall tell Prince Paul. Then they went home and told Prince Paul.
Hungary and Rumania got tastes of
Britain's growing audacity. In London Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden invited Hungarian Minister Georges de Barcza to pay him a call. Mr. Eden suavely ticked off Hungary with "sympathetic understanding" of Hungary's embarrassing position—but he warned that if Britain wins the war Hungary will pay. By week's end the pre-war Rumanian-British friendship had run its course to overt enmity. After the rupture of diplomatic relations (TIME, Feb. 17) the British Board of Trade announced that all goods of Rumanian origin, destination or ownership henceforth would be considered enemy contraband.
Britain's friends, Greece and Turkey, remained Britain's friends—but this week Turkey and Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact, indicating that Turkey's belligerence, if it came, would be entirely defensive. Greece, with no other friend than Britain, still showed no signs of acceding to reported German pressure for a separate Greek-Italian peace.
The big question, as ice began to break up on the Danube and spring to show its signs ahead of season, was whether, when spring really arrived, Great Britain and her little friends would be established in a major conflict with Germany on the Balkan front. If so, Germany had a long march to Suez and the Near East.