HELP FOR ALLIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 March 1946, Page 5

HELP FOR ALLIES

SPAIN’S REPLY TO AMERICAN CHARGES HITLER’S REQUEST REFUSED LONDON, March 18. The Franco Government, in a 5000v’ord reply to charges published in the United States White Book, declares that Hitler tried hard to get Spain to participate in the war. The German request was at first avoided and then refused by the Caudillo. The statement enumerates 12 points illustrating how “Spain’s benevolence to the Allies facilitated the United States’ entry into the war.” These points included: first, Spain’s friendly attitude to Portugal when the Allies took over the Azores bases; second, the Spanish refusal to raise the Japanese Legation to the status of an embassy; third, Spain’s de facto recognition of the French Government in North Africa; fourth, the through Spain of French combatants bound from Algiers; fifth, refusal to recognise Mussolini’s Fascist Government in North Italy; sixth, aid to refugees and the release of American airmen who made forced landings in Spain. The Spanish reply denies in detail only two of the 15 documents contained in the United States’ White Book. The other 13 refer to the period 1940-41, when the United States was not yet in the war. “The Spanish Government therefore cannot understand what connection can be found between the United States and documents which refer to a period of the war when the United States was neutral, and when she was not affected by the conduct of another equally neutral nation,” says the statement. _ .