NAZIS' NEXT MOVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 151, 27 June 1940, Page 5

NAZIS' NEXT MOVE.

EXPLOITING GAINS.

SMALL AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY. NEW ANGLE ON CONQUEST. The decision of the Bordeaux Government to acquiesce in the German and Italian demands for the unconditional surrender of the French fleet gives added interest to the views expressed by the military correspondent of the "Sydney Morning , Herald," writing the day before the terms of the armistice were made known.

Even if a Mediterranean land and naval front is still possible by limiting the results of the French debacle to France herself, the tremendous, increase in Germany's strength should not be under-estimated, he wrote. Germany has the factories and the armaments industries of Europe, and confident in her power to hold the Continent, she will hasten to exploit her air force and build up naval strength again. The gains, however, are not entirely for immediate realisation.

There has been much destruction of factories and dockyards, and, moreover, France's armament industries are mostly related to the type of land warfare which has proven so woefully inadequate. The French aircraft industry is small and old-fashioned, and Germany will have to start practically "de novo" in assimilating it to Nazi methods, at a time when British and American industry will be producing ever-growing numbers of 'planes. In addition, the blockade will cut off those raw materials without which F/ench industry cannot function on ii,s present basis, especially the all-important oil, cotton, wool and chemicals.

If the Mediterranean falls to Germany, such difficulties of supply will be largely overcome; while, on the contrary, if action on the part of the French fleet and the colonies enables Britain to told the Mediterranean coast, the block-

ade will be correspondingly more effective and the war shortened. If France has become enemy territory, her "lifeline" to Africa must be cut for military and economic reasons, and a new colonial France must be raised to save the mother country. As General de Gaulle said, common sense and honour can admit no other course.