HARSH NAZI DEMANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 151, 23 December 1940, Page 8

HARSH NAZI DEMANDS

Threats to France

NEW WAR STRATEGY

r<Received December 23, .2.20 p.m.)

v The Berlin correspondent of the newspaper "Basler Nach- - richten" says it is believed in the Wilhelmstrasse that the Govern--ment will wait only until December .28 for Marshal Petain's answer to - the German, demands for further » French co-operation in the building •of the new order in Europe. Herr Abetz has made it clear to Marshal Petain that Germany is unwilling to f'wait any longer.

It is generally believed by diplomatic officials in Berlin that develop--"'ments of the greatest importance are v imminent.

The diplomatic correspondent of the "Observer" says that Hitler aims at

full French acceptance of Axis status,

. plus a declaration of war against Bril tain. If this is achieved the strategy •<~-ot Hitler's culminating attack on Bri■t tain will be to close the western part 'of the Mediterranean, bottle up the British Fleet, and isolate the British armies in the Middle East, leave Italy to her fate, and, with French and Spanish help, impose an effective

LONDON, December 22

blockade on Britain,

Hitler has threatened to cancel the armistice with France and proclaim a state of war unless Marshal Petain agrees to the new German demands, says a correspondent of the International News Service at Vichy in a message to the "Sunday Express."

The Nazis, he says, are demanding: (1) That France shall hand over her fleet; (2) that she shall dismiss the Minister of Justice, M. Alibert, and the Minister of • the Interior, M. Peyrouton; and (3) that the Government shall be moved from Vichy to Paris (where, it would be under the thumb of Herr Abetz).

The correspondent adds that the demands are so harsh that Marshal Petain is not expected to accept them.

Competent observers are convinced that Britain's resistance has created an entirely new situation in which German control not only of France's Atlantic bases, but also the air force and the navy would give the Nazis an immense advantage. The disasters to Italy are increasing Germany's need.

It is expected that total occupation of France against protests by the Vichy Government would swing the whole of the French colonial empire, and perhaps the fleet, back into the battle on the side of Britain.

The Free French news agency says that the number of Gestapo agents at Vichy has increased in the last few weeks, and that they now also guard French ports and aerodromes, owing to German fears that the pressure they are exercising will create a situation in which Marshal Petain and his collaborators will be pushed beyond endurance and tempted to flee to Africa. Germany is very cautious because of the-breakaway of the African empire, but is doing her utmost to wear down the Vichy Ministers, who are holding out against dishonourable dealings I such as M. Laval advocated.