21 APRIL 1939, Page 1

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia, now the most exposed of all the Balkan

countries, is taking every precaution to lessen the danger facing her, when Germany and Italy each have a million men under arms and Hungary and Rumania each 500,000. She has undertaken a partial mobilisation, and hopes to have some 300,000 men under arms this week. At the same time, it is believed that efforts have been made to arrange a meeting between the Prince Regent and King Carol of Rumania, and perhaps also King Boris of Bulgaria; they have not so far borne fruit. Little encouragement can be found in Italian assurances of friendship or guarantees of the frontier threatened from Albania ; and the efforts of the Serbs to reach an agreement with the Croats emphasise that only by the greatest degree of internal unity may it be possible to avert danger. In the further meeting that took place at Zagreb at the week-end between the Yugoslav Prime Minister, M. Tsvetkovitch, and the Croat leader, Dr. Niatchek, the Government appears to have conceded in principle the Croat demand for autonomy and for constitutional changes ; unfortunately, a deadlock has been caused by the Croats' demand that Bosnia and the Dalmatian coast be included in their area of autonomy. The Croats would be ill-advised to press these territorial demands too far ; the external danger has given them a great and long-awaited opportunity, but the Government may prefer capitulation to the Axis to surren- der to excessive claims.