ITALY'S INTEREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22694, 5 April 1937, Page 9

ITALY'S INTEREST

BALEARIC ISLANDS STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE CONSUL'S DOCUMENTS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Becoived April 4, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, April 3 As revealing Italy's designs in the Balearic Islands a special correspondent of the Manchester Guardian at Barcelona publishes the contents of documents which the Italian Consul left behind him when he hastily departed from that city after Italy's recognition of General Franco. These documents disclose that Italy has been interested in the islands for 10 years and has persistently investigated their foreign trading activities and been constantly preoccupied with their political and strategic importance. One of the Consul's despatches, dated February 1, 1929, requested ciphered telegraphic particulars of arrivals and departures of foreign warships. In March, 1935, the Consul reported the British naval exercises, alluding to their unusual form and strategic purpose. The Consul complained bitterly that ho could not observe the behaviour of British officers because they went ashore in mufti at Barcelona. The Consulate in February, 1936, denounced "British interference" in fortifications and naval bases and asked the Madrid Embassy to place the accusatory material at the disposal of a local journal.

REBEL PLOTTERS •—r HUNDREDS ARRESTED CAUSES OF THE TROUBLE LONDON, March 30 Further reports of plots in the rebel army against General Franco have reached London from Malaga, Tangier, and Gibraltar. The plotting is said to , be spread throughout Spanish Morocco, where hundreds of Spaniards and Moors have been arrested. Germans, acting as General Franco's secret police, are reported to be mainly responsible for discovering the plots. The Germans are said to be organised on the same lines as Herr Hitler's political police, the Gestapo. Fears that Italy may dominate Spanish affairs were believed to have inspired this action by native-born insurgents against Franco, but Italian troops are now reported to have taken part in some of the plotting. Nearly 20 Italian soldiers were shot for an anti-Franco plot alleged to have been hatched at Algociras, in tbe rebel territory near Gibraltar. Some of the trouble is said to have arisen from Spaniards, jealous at being replaced in the rebel army by Italians. Another factor is that the Spanish rebels fear that both Italians and Germans will remain in Spain if Franco is successful in defeating the Government. Italians and Germans fighting in the rebel ranks are also suspicious of each other.

Only the activities of their commanders, who are anxious that nothing shall happen in Spain to imperil the Italo-German alliance, prevent open hostility.

GERMAN POISON GAS A STATEMENT DENIED (Received April 4, 6.30 p.m.) BERLIN, April 3 The Propaganda Ministry denies 'an official statement by the Spanish Government at Valencia that poison gas is being loaded at Hamburg intended for Spain.