A BUBBLING POT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 13

A BUBBLING POT

NAZIS IN MEXICO

CONCERN IN WASHINGTON

(From "The Post's" Representative.) • NEW YORK, June 5. From all parts of Latin America and the United States, Germans have been arriving in Mexico in recent months. They describe themselves as tourists and salesmen-. .Their: objective is not, as in Europe, to pave the way for invading armies, but to divert a large American force to the protection of the 1700-mile border, and thus enhance the prospect of keeping America out of the war. At the moment, they are causing a good deal of concern in Washington. The Nazi "fifth column" intends to exploit the nuisance value of Mexico by stirring up internal strife, and causing anti-American outbreaks.. Mexico provides an excellent base for espionage and sabotage in the United States. Its lengthy coast lines, on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, afford an opportunity for the operation of submarines and surface vesels against American shipping. For the past five years Germans have gradually been extending their influence in Mexico. Some are wealthy and influential. They are scattered all over the republic. An active branch of the Gestapo co-ordinates their efforts. The Mexican oil expropriation gave them an opportunity which was eagerly seized. They concluded a barter deal with Mexico which was of considerable help while Great. Britain and the United States were fighting in the courts for compensation for oil concessions the Government confiscated. Many Mexican newspapers take the Transocean news service, which is a branch of the D.N.8., the official Berlin agency. Papers that cannot afford to pay for it get it free of cost. A forced levy on German firms operat-' ing in Mexico provides fund's for propaganda. Objectors are quickly brought to book by threat of reprisals against their relatives in Germany. So effective is the Nazi programme in Mexico that anti-Nazi Germans there complain that their mail is opened before being delivered. The chief cause for concern at Washington lies in reports that the Germans in Mexico,' through their secret service, have aeroplanes • hidden in various parts of Mexico. They are believed to control at least one Mexican civil air line. Armed Germans are said to be protecting airports. Refuelling stations have been established 1 for submarines. The Nazi secret service is said to have smuggled arms into Mexico for the use of German colonists ; and friendly Spanish ranchers. A Gestapo executive who provided arms for the attempted coup of General Cedillo, two years ago, arrived in Mexico in September last.