REBELS EXPECTED SWIFT NAZI AID

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 108, 9 May 1941, Page 7

REBELS EXPECTED SWIFT NAZI AID

IRAQ DISILLUSION

Reported Menacing Nazi

Threats To Syria

Unito.l l> r ,.jis Association.—.Copyright

Rec. 2.30 p.m

LONDON, May 8

It is unofficially stated that Rashid Ali has quitted Bagdad owing to hostile demonstrations, reports the British Inited Press correspondent at Cairo.

Rashid Ali's supporters complained that the Axis had let them down. They expected swarms of German pianos to come to their aid. and even left signal fires at night to guide the German pilots.

The 'Daily Telegraph" Jerusalem correspondent says that patrols of Empire troops arc now crossing the Transjordan frontier into Iraq without opposition.

According to Swiss reports Germany has demanded permission to land forces in Syria for drives on the Iraq and Iran oilfields, and on Suez. It is stated that the Germans have served demands on the Vichy Government"?; High Commissioner of Svria. General Dentz.

Germany is also reported to have threatened to land parachute troops on the Syrian coast, and to have declared: "If the landings are resisted Syria will be considered to have taken up arms against Germany."