RIBBENTROP AT ROME

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1940, Page 7

RIBBENTROP AT ROME

GUESSES AT VISIT’S PURPOSE. I.BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, September 20. A Rome message says that the Nazi Foreign Minister (Herr von Ribbentrop), after telephoning Herr Hitler and having a further talk with Signor Mussolini and Count Ciano, announced that he had concluded his Italian visit and that he was returning to Berlin to-morrow, after which he would again confer with the Spanish Minister for the Interior (Don Ramon Suner) regarding Spain’s co-operation with the Axis.. To-day’s Rome talks are the subject of varying. interpretations, but Italian and German informed circles are agreed that the conferences were essential because a “decisive stage of the war” had been reached with the bombardment of London and the invasion of Egypt. Apparently a clarification of th.? Axis interests in Africa was one of the most important aspects of the talks, including the price payable for Spain’s immediate entry into the war. The Germans declared that .the elimination of Britain from Africa would follow the liberation of Egypt, which would remain independent if it did not fight against the Axis. The Spanish Minister apparently has been told bluntly that the extent of Spain’s territorial reward in Gibraltar and Morocco will be governed by the degree and urgency of Spanish co-operation. The Rome correspondent of the British United Press states that Herr von Ribbentrop’s visit to Rome may lead to a meeting between Herr Hit-, ler and Signor. Mussolini. A spokesman emphasised that Herr von Ribbentrop’s talks were vastly important. -