SPLIT AT VICHY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 279, 24 October 1940, Page 7

SPLIT AT VICHY.

NAZI DEMANDS REJECTED

DIVIDING THE SPOILS.

LONDON, Oct. 23. It is announced- that M. Laval (VicePremier in the Vichy Government) has returned to Vichy irom his talks with Hitler. In the meantime it is reported that Hitler and von Ribbentrop (Foreign Minister) have opened talus with General Franco and benof Suner (the Spanish Minister who recently visited Home and Berlin). These reports,, which originate m Lisbon, declare that two meetings took place in a railway carriage on the Franco-Spanish border. Both parties returned to their own sides of the frontier for lunch, but it is expected tlio conversations will be resumed. A communique issued at Vichy says M Laval has returned to Paris. Hitler is reported to have told M. Laval of a plan for a resettlement by the Axis and France so that all three would collaborate. - . , It is stated that M. Laval carried with him documents rejecting certain demands by Hitler. These included that France surrender her navy to the Axis, that Germany be handed back Alsace and Lorraine, that Italy and Germany share Nice, that Italy have a share in Tunis, and that Morocco be divided between Spain and Germany. The rejection of these demands is believed to point to the fact that a section of the Vichy Government, does not support M. Laval's intrigues. The official spokesman at .Vichy asserted: "There is no question ot France taking military action against Britain."