FANFARE IN BERLIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 26 November 1941, Page 9

FANFARE IN BERLIN

RENEWAL OF PACT ANTI-COMINTERN POWERS (Reed. Nov. 25, 2.40 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 24. Representatives of the signatories of the anti-Comintern Pact, who are meeting in Berlin, will renew the pact to-morrow for a further five years, says the Berlin correspondent of the British United Press. Only the six original adherents—Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Hungary and Manchukuo will sign the renewal, although Hitler has invited the representatives of European countries under German domination to attend the ceremony. The vassal countries represented will be Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, and Rumania, Hitler has not invited Sweden, Switzerland or Vichy to send representatives. The German propaganda machine is doing its utmost to boost the ceremony as a big German diplomatic victory. Lavish social preparations are being made. The German-controlled radios at first stated that Finland and Rumania were signing the pact, but this was later denied.

The Tokio newspaper Nichinichi said that Japan’s participation in the anti-Comintern conference would hot violate the Russian-Japanese neutrality pact since the anti-Comintern agreement was aimed at the Third International and not at the Soviet Union.