Windows of the World

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 18

Windows of the World

International Scenes and Affairs

THE NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS.

IF FRANCO WINS.

UNPLEASANT SITUATION. gltjmax tkavellkrs vij:\v. LONDON". Mux (inii'ii. German geologist and traveller. who lias Ik>cii the gucj-t of Premier Mussolini of Italy, recently lee. tured at Coiict a lice, his subject Ix-ing "The Decisive Struggle in the Mediterranean." The lecture lasted for three hours and a half. Certain passages were not reported in the German Press, including the following:--"The war in Spain is a European war that is being waged fur the supremacy (\ orhcrrscha ft I in the Mediterranean. Hitherto Italy ho* plave.l the part of a power submissive to England and France —for example, in the world war. Hut the strength she lias unw achieved, as well a« her geographical position, allow her to pursue an active policy. ''To-day Italy is England's strongest rival in tin- Mediterranean. If Spain falls into the hands of Franco, then Gibraltar is threatened, and tlie transport of French troops from the colonies will be made almost impossible because of the fortified Balearie Islands. When this has happened, Germany will play bell ("Rollsehuh fahren") with France in a way that country has never experienced throughout the whole of its history. ''France lias girded herself with concrete armour along her eastern frontier, but she forgot that her Italian sister would abandon her one day. Marianne is vulnerable on the Italian frontier; liOn.OOft Italian troops are ready to invade. France in case of need. "The Sudan is gripped by an Italian pinr*r formation. . . . The Suez canal is threatened by Italy to-day. The Mosul-Haifa oil pipe line can be destroyed with the help of the Arabs in rase of emergency, so that the English Mediterrane in Fleet will be deprived of its oil reserve. "Japan may lx> counted on to use the opportunity to seize Hongkong and thereby as good as exclude England from the Far East. England will have to swallow whatever ("den Kuodel schlticken") Germany and Italy set before her. The whole world is laughing at England in her impotence to-day. She would not have put up with this before 1914. England is trying to overtake Germany and Italy hv means of her tremendous rearmament. But we are too far ahead with our armaments to be overtaken. The days of the Halifaxes are over. We demand what was stolen from us—our colonies. "In ease of »'ar Italy will annex a part of Southern France."