FREE FRENCH SLOGANS

Evening Star, Issue 23861, 16 April 1941, Page 8

FREE FRENCH SLOGANS

PLASTERED ON PARIS BUILDINGS SIX THOUSAND WARRANTS ISSUED VICHY, April 15. (.Received April 16, -at 11 a.m.) Six thousand warrants have been issued against Paris householders for allowing de Gaullist slogans to remain on the walls of buildings. This is part of a drive to halt the spread of the de Gaulle movement. THREAT TO SUEZ! AXIS BLITZ SUCCESS LONDON, April 15. « The Times ’ correspondent on the Italian frontier says tnat Axis circles interpret a special German communique announcing “ with the fall of Bardia the British have lost their last base on the eastern border of Cyreuaica,” as implying that the British defences in .North Africa , have broken down, permitting a continuation of the lightning Axis push across Egypt with the- object of seizing the Suez Canal before the first United States ships arrive. RECAPTURE OF BARDIA. Despatches from Tripoli describe the methods whereby the Italo-Gennan forces achieved a blitz success. The Axis forces were split up. One section followed up and narassed the British in the coastal retreat, while the other section struck out across the desert circumventing British-built forts, erected after the original British advance u> Benghazi, which w r ere now in readiness as the main British base of operations. The Axis tactics purposely nurtured the impression that the italo-German forces were eagerly pressing on the attack in the coastal area, thus focussing British attention on Tobruk. Simultaneously the Axis desert columns rushed ahead unperceived, marching across the deseiu at night and sleeping in the daytime Mnder camouflaged sheeting, making the Axis tanks appear to British reconnaissance planes like desert shrubs. This desert force completely surprised the British at Bardia. AXIS OFFER SPURNED BY YUGOSLAVIA LONDON, April 15. “ Germany offered us not only Salonika but the whole of Bulgaria m return for joining the Axis, but according to the tradition of our ancestors we preferred attack rather than the burial of Balkan independence,” says an official Yugoslav Government declaration issued from temporary headquarters at Sarajevo. The declaration added: “We did not -want war, and nobody in Yugoslavia had any illusions about the eventual outcome of the war with Germany. Our purpose is by resistance to lighten the position of our Greek and British Allies. The Yugoslav army is not seriously dented, and will again astonish the world as it did in the last war.” NO EVACUATION ANSWER TO AXIS PROPAGANDA (By Radio.) LONDON, April 16. Axis propaganda is spreading the rumour that the British forces are about to he evacuated from Greece, but the fact is that fresh British troops have been sent up to reinforce those already there. RUSSIAN FRONTIER GERMANS STRENGTHEN DEFENCES (By Radio.) LONDON, April 16. The German Minister of Munitions has been inspecting the Nazi defences on the Russian frontier. Ever since the signing of the Moscow-Berlin pact thousands of workers have been employed in strengthening the defences in this area. DOMINION CASUALTIES (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, April 16. The following casualties to members of the Second N.Z.E.F. are reported;— Private William Llewellyn Verdon, died of wounds. Next of kin, Mrs A. Verdon, Bank street, Timaru (mother). Lieutenant Arthur Thomas Begg Green, wounded. Next of kin, Mr R. Green, Church street, Timaru (father). Private Lancelot Brian Burgess, died of sickness. Next of kin, Mrs A. King, Oaro (mother).