WOOING SPAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 262, 3 October 1940, Page 7

WOOING SPAIN

ENEMY’S POOR PROSPECTS FRANCO DISILLUSIONED. (United Press Association —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 2. Commenting 09 the visit ; to Rome of Seiior Suner (Spanish Minister of the Interior), the Daily Telegraph points out the inherent Axis difficulty in persuading Spain to adopt the course which Italy herself has pursued unprofitably since June JLO. Speaking of the Italian parleys with Senor Suner, the paper ,says: “The facts of the situation suggest that these efforts to draw Spain into the war have not 1 been successful. What Hitler failed to obtain from Senor Suner’s long visit to Berlin it is not likely his subaltern will be able to extract. “Immediately after Italy’s entry, Spain declared herself That, of course, is tho status which Italy held until the defeat of France tempted her to deliver a stab in the back with the hope of obtaining the spoils of victory without cost. The subsequent course of the war has shown that Mussolini made gross miscalculations which General Franco can feel small desire to imitate.” The Telegraph adds that the shattering of the Luftwaffe’s attacks, the destruction of the German invasion flotillas, and the R.A.F.’s raids have given Spain a new estimate of British and Nazi power.