Balkan Drive

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 103, 2 May 1941, Page 3

Balkan Drive

HITLER’S BIG PLAN It is increasingly clear, that Hitler ambitiously plans to liquidate the Balkans, over-run Egypt, and drive the British Navy out of the Mediterranean. It is equally clear (says the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald) that Hitler is going to meet increasing difficulties. London commentators are taking a cautious but not a pessimistic view. “Scrutator,” writing in the Sunday Times, says: “It will all come right if we persevere. Hitler’s Germany is like a harpooned whale with a barbed spear in its side. The blood flows slowly but. inexorably. Momentarily she has a giant’s strength, but she will not survive if the harpoon holds.” Air control over the Balkans where communications are limited counts more even than in tho Low Countries offensive. The Aeronautical Correspondent of the Sunday Times says; “The R.A.F. Middle East Command is the strongest it has ever been, though it is split between Greece, Libya and Eritrea. The Diplomatic Correspondent of the Observer directs attention to Rashid Ali’s Iraq coup. He says that the reports of the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Eden, to the Cabinet had given timely

warning of the coup’s real purpose, aud adds: “Tho object of Germany’s Balkans and Libyan drives is to achieve the Kaiser’s Berlin-Bagdad dream. I Wit h, the Mosul oilfields as one of the spoils of Iraq is the nerve centre of the whole Middle East.”