DICTATORS’ MEETING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 94, 19 March 1940, Page 7

DICTATORS’ MEETING

SHROUDED IN SECRECY CORDIAL SPIRIT REPORTED RETURN TO CAPITALS (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received March ID, 9.25 a.m. BERLIN, March IS. Reporting on Hitler’s arrival at Brennero, a small border village in the Brenner Pass, to conler with Signor Mitssolini, the German News Agency says: “The two leaders have met in order to discuss questions concerning both countries and arising from the fact that Germany to-day is at war with the Western plutocracies, while Italy, by no means neutral but ahron-belligerent, is also fighting for the rights of young nations.” On their arrival at Brennero, states a London message, Signor Mussolini and Hitler immediately conferred alone in one of the coaches,, which had been fitted out as an office. The Rome wireless says that the conference lasted two and a half hours. It was held in a cordial spirit. The blinds of the coach were drawn in order to ensure complete privacy.

MINISTERS CONFER.

The Foreign Ministers, Herr von Ribbentrop and Count Ciano, talked in an adjoining coach. At 1 p.m. Hitler's train left for Berlin and Signor Mussolini departed for Rome a quarter of an hour later. The official wireless says that Count Ciano and Herr von Ribbentrop were present at the conference. V HINT OF BALKAN BLOC. j • Earlier reports stated: Only a matter of hours after the announcement in Rome yesterday that Signor Mussolini and his Foreign Minister (Count Ciano) were to meet Hitler near the Italian-German frontier, two bullet-proof trains arrived this morning at .Brennero A blizzard was raging. Hitler, accompanied by Herr von Ribbentrop, alighted from the train from Germany and walked to the other train, where Signor Mussolini and Count Ciano were waiting. The dictators shook hands and immediately commenced talks' in private. The German News Agency comments: ‘‘To-day means a turning point in the history of Europe and will show to the world the complete singleness of the aim of the Axis.” The agency predicts a German-Italian programme which will deliver Europe from war.

In Rome, however, there is no comment on the talks, the only suggestion being that the meeting has some connectiori with the visit to Europe of President Roosevelt’s representative, Mr Sumner AVellcs. The Berlin morning newspapers publish an official communique concerning the meeting under huge headlines, but with no comment. LONDON NOT OPTIMISTIC. A London message says that the general tone of the Press in non-totali-tarian countries places little iaith or confidence in any German-Italian peace more, because of the wide divergence of the Allied and German viewpoints. i There is no reason to suppose that Mr AVclles’s reticence will have been less baffling in Rome than in London, but even through his reserve Signor Mussolini is not likely not to have guessed something of the impression which it is confidently believed in London Mr AVelles has derived of the determination of the Allies to achieve their war aims. The Beilin correspondent of the Amsterdam Telegraaf says that the Wilhelmstrasse is optimistic about Hitler’s efforts to reconcile Stalin and Signor Mussolini. Hitler is doing his best to engineer Russo-Rurnanian and Russo-Turkish non-aggression pacts Belgrade is full of gossip regarding an impending economic bloc between Italy, Russia, and Germany, embracing all the small States under the influence of the three Powers. Well-informed circles in London confirm that Nazi agents arc active in south-eastern Europe with the object of securing political influence in Rumania and economic concessions elsewhere, but it is evident that much propaganda is emanating from a German whispering campaign which is well organised if not well founded. Londoners discount reports from Bucharest that the Allies have completed plans to advance against Russia with the help of Turkish and Rumanian troops. They declare that at most it is an effort to discover what the Allies’ plans really are.