HITLER'S LATEST MOVES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 100, 24 October 1940, Page 10

HITLER'S LATEST MOVES

Hitler's diplomatic offensive in Paris and at the Pyrenees, where he spreads one snare for Petuin and another for Franco, ranks in the high j strategy of a war which is being waged by the Axis with every possible Aveapon. Hitler's highest success would be to turn France and Spain into belligerents ranged against Britain. If he could do that, he would immediately seek to add the French navy, also the Spanish navy, to existing Axis naval forces, and would make a bid for sea-control. But the French and the Spaniards know that if this bid for sea-control I failed, then their own oversea possessions—those whose fate is dependent on sca-powcr —would be legally in forfeit to Britain as their] deliberately chosen enemy. ThcJ French and the Spanish will have! lillle to gain if they exchange neutrality for belligerence—for a British! defeat would he Hitler's tcrrilorkhfy

profit, not theirs—but they have a great deal to lose if, after another Trafalgar, Britannia still rules the waves. Nevertheless, Hitler has gone to Paris and to the Pyrenees to urge Petain and Franco to sacrifice their countries' interests by making war on Britain —a war which would be a culminating point to the era of aggression which Mussolini introduced to Europe in 1935. It is fairly certain that Petain is unwilling to attack his late ally, but that Hitler has the help of some hirelings at Petain's side, probably of Laval and Baudouin. There is some indication that, in Spain, Suncr is playing towards Franco the role that Laval plays towards Petain. If Petain and Franco were to give way, Hitler would score a diplomatic win; but,1 in the last analysis, it would still remain with the people of France and Spain—people who in the past have fought for freedom —to decide whether French and Spanish belligerence should have behind it the drive of popular support. The immediate future is not predictable; but,* whatever happens, Britain's confidence in ultimate victory is increasing!