AXIS STRATEGY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4433, 12 September 1939, Page 4

AXIS STRATEGY

THE BALBO PLAN

CONTROL OF MEDITERRANEAN

While .the attention of the world’s Press is focused on Poland an even grimmer struggle is fast reaching a climax in and around the Mediterranean (writes Frederic Sondern in the ‘San Francisco Chronicle ’). With the signing of the Gcrman-Italian military pact. Hitler and Mussolini formally ratified the series of arrangements and agreements made between Goering, Ciano, Balbo and the general staffs of both .countries during the past mouths. It has since been realised that the full plan for the redistribution of the world is now on paper. The first step in the plan, considered far more important by Berlin insiders than the return of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, is the rapid completion of the Balbo plan—the division of tlie Mediterranean into three “ watertight ” compartments to paralyse the British and French “ imperial lifelines.”

During the recent Gcrman-Italian general staff talks, it was decided that Italy could not manage alone the operations against Egypt and Tunis demanded by the Balbo plan. The 120,000 Italian and native troops stationed in Libya are not strong enough to launch an attack against Egypt on one side and resist a French invasion from Tunis on the other. Additional forces cannot be sent from Italy, as Spain and Ethiopia already demand more men than can be spared from the Italian mainland. Three strong battalions of German soldiers fully equipped for desert fighting are therefore being concentrated at three oases on the southern-eastern border of Libya.

Another army—this one entirely Italian —is being organised on the Dodecanese Islands for a simultaneous attack on Suez from the east througli Svria and Palestine. To aid the attack on Egypt, agents of the German and Italian Intelligence Service in a burst of activity unparalleled since the World War are pouring out money on the Nubian Sudanese tribes and the Arab malcontents in Syria and Palestine.

Herr Franz von Pa pen, though distrusted by Der Fuhrer, has been dragged from retirement and sent to Turkey as Ambassador. Turkey is a vital factor in the German-italian operations against Egypt. And Papen is an expert at greasing the necessary palms. Watertight door No. 2 in the Balbo plan is the strait between Sicily and Tunis, guarded by the huge Italian fortress Island of Pantelleria. This, blocked by Italian submarines and planes, is 'already so strong that the British fleet will have great difficulty getting by in case of war. And door No. 3 at Gibraltar, is progressing nicely, according to the German and Italian experts. The London newspapers a few weeks ago all published long articles on the new strength of Gibraltar, indicating that the batteries of long-range and anti-aircraft guns recently installed could easily silence the German and Italian artillery and planes now concentrated around the Rock. Other observers are less optimistic. The battle has been joined by the British Government with all available forces for preservation of the “ life- • line.” Young King Farouk of Egypt has made an agreement to put his army entirely under the control of a British high command. All Italian stevedores at Port Said have been dis- ■ charged and replaced by Egyptian I labour —a blow to Italian plans. In Spain, however, all attempts to | make General Franco “ see reason ’ have been unsuccessful. Five hundred ! more German military technicians ar- ! rived at Cadiz from Hamburg recently, i and were sent off to join a large staff j already in the oversized camps in the ' new bases round Gibraltar. Com- ! plaints by the British Ambassador in Madrid were entirely disregarded. In Portugal, if Dictator Salazar goes the way of the Axis, the entrance to tlie Mediterranean is completely lost for Britain, as London insiders admit. From bases on the Spanish-Portu-gucse border, several thousand agents —well financed with German and Italian money—have been let loose on tlie Portuguese population. On the outcome of this vast, unofficial and almost bloodless war depend the rapidity and the violence of Gorman moves against Poland. For on the outcome of this war also depends Mi Neville Chamberlain’s flexibility. The completion date of the five new British dreadnoughts needed to make the Mediterranean again an English sea is still far off, and till that time Britain—all optimism and statements of strength notwithstanding—has the Mediterranean just as long as King Farouk, Ibn Sand, the various Emirs. Ismet Inonu of Turkey and Dictator Motaxos of Greece think it is worth while.