MORE NAZI MANOEUVRING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 25 October 1940, Page 4

MORE NAZI MANOEUVRING

IT is now clear that while Mr Churchill was broadcasting his ringing call to Frenchmen to re-arm their spirits before it was too late, Hitler was about to try his persuasive powers on the men of Vichy and of Madrid. What happened at the meeting between Herr Hitler and M. Laval, and at the interview with General Franco, has not so far been disclosed, but there are good grounds for believing that an attempt was and is being made to induce France to declare war on Britain, and Spain to throw in her lot with the Axis Powers. The timing of Mr Churchill’s broadcast suggests that he was aware of this. It is suggested that Hitler, not satisfied with the help Italy is giving is seeking more Allies. A majority in the Vichy Government is said to oppose entering the war against Britain and the French as a whole do not wish to turn against their old ally. Spain stands to gain little and lose much if she threw in her lot with the untrustworthy Dictators. And so is revealed the latest example of what Mr Churchill culled Nazi “scientific, low cunning.” Hitler has been thwarted arid he is not accustomed to that. Beaten back in the west, he now turns his eyes to the south-east, but, in the Mediterranean, as in the Channel, he sees-the Royal Navy between him and his cherished objectives. In the midst of these efforts for a wider war, come reports of Axis feelers for peace. Even the organ of the German Storm Troopers repeats the Fuhrer’s oft-made assertion that the Nazis never had any intention of destroying Britain and would be prepared to consider a compromise peace. From an Italian source comes advice to Britain to compromise. How will this appeal to the “forty-six million Churchills” in Britain and millions more of the same breed beyond the seas? The Prime Minister answered for them all in advance when he spoke to

France. “Remember,” he said, “we shall never cease; never weary; never give in; and that our whole people and Empire have vowed themselves to the task of cleansing Europe from the Nazi pestilence and saving the world from new dark ages.” This talk about a patchwork peace is a manoeuvre just as much as the: manoeuvre with Laval and Franco.! Both are the products of a tortuous mind which seeks some way of escape. It is quite likely that the Axis would welcome peace now, even a compromise peace. The destruction of the evils of Nazism may be a long way off, but are all these twistings and turnings, first this way and then that, the outward signs of the troubled mind of a man. who, like Belshazzar, has seen the handwriting on the wall?