FRANCO'S VISIT TO DUCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 11

FRANCO'S VISIT TO DUCE

SIMILAR RESERVE IN FRANCE

TALKS WITH PETAIN

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received February 15, 10.10 a.m.)

RUGBY, February 14.

| General Franco has, returned to | Spain. There is inevitable speculation abroad as to the object the Duce had in view in inviting General Franco to Italy at this time, but in Spain reticence is displayed and there is no editorial comment on the subject, while the news columns, although making much of the en« thusiasm with which the head of the Spanish State was received in Italy, make no attempt to add to the information contained in the formal communique. In France similar reserve is shown in the report of Marshal Petain's meeting with General Franco. With his African empire in ruins and Genoa severely battered by the British Navy on the eve of the visit, it is safe to assume that Mussolini reflected sadly on the superior wisdom of' General Franco, who declined the passage of German troops through Spain, whereas, as a result of his own reckless and clumsy policy animated by greed and short-sightedness, German troops are already occupying bases in Italy and there is growing evidence that the German, commanders are increasingly threatening to relieve the Duce of his control.