GERMAN WARSHIPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23326, 20 April 1939, Page 11

GERMAN WARSHIPS

FORTY LEAVE PORTS CONCENTRATION AT SEA DETAILS OF THE CRUISE BERLIN. April 18 Forty German warships sailed last night from Kiel, Emden and Wilhelmshaven. They will meet in the vicinity of Heligoland or the Atlantic. The ships will call at Cadiz, Algeciras, Malaga, Ceuta and Tangier between April 27 and May 1, and at Ferrol, Arosa Bay, Ponte Yedra, Vigo and Lisbon between May 6 and 10. "NO DECISION YET" FRENCH WRITER'S REVIEW POSITION OF THE DICTATORS Independent Cable Service (Received April 20, 12.15 a.m.) LONDON, April 19 The well-known French commentator "Pertinax," writing in the Paris jßurnal L'Ordre on the international situation, says: "The main difference between now and seven months ago is that then the dictators' aims were clear. Now it is impossible to say at which of many conceivable targets they may strike first. "Nevertheless, competent military authorities in Paris and London have come to the conclusion that no serious decision to make war has yet been reached in Berlin —not to mention Rome, which is dropping more into the position of junior associate, deprived of any will of its own. "Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini no longer believe victory can come as the result of weakening certain statesmen or manoeuvres of a few witting or unwitting accomplicesj, they are now working to undermine the morale of the democratic peoples themselves." The Tokio newspaper Asahi Shimbun says Mr. Roosevelt intends to send to Japan a personal Note similar to his communications to Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini, and will probably announce the readiness of the United States to lend its good offices in calling a conference of Powers interested in the Far East for the solution of current problems.

YUGOSLAV ARMY STRENGTH BEING DOUBLED REGENT AND KING CAROL LONDON, April 18 Yugoslavia is doubling her armed forces, states a despatch from Belgrade. She will have an eventual strength of between 250,000 and 300,000 men. King Carol of Rumania has gone to Turnu-Severinu, in tlio Rumanian province of Mehedinti, to meet Prince Paul, Regent of Yugoslavia, says a message from Bucharest.

VON PAPEN REAPPEARS AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY BERLIN, April 18 It is officially stated that Herr von Pa pen has been appointed German Ambassador to Turkey. The reapwarnnee of Fran?: von Papen in the diplomatic world gives another surprising turn to a colourful and chequered career. The war-time master spy in America, who became ViceChancellor of the Reich in the last days of Hindenburg, and who paved the way for Hitler in 1933. later became Special Minister to Austria, and still later was appointed Ambassador to Rome. In March of last year it was announced that he had been appointed Ambassador to Turkey, but before lie took up the post it was reported from Vienna that he was in disgrace. For some days he was missing, but the German Foreign Office then denied that von Papen was in trouble, and said ho was staying on his estate in the Saar. No developments followed hints in the newspapers that a charge of high treason might follow discoveries alleged to have been made in Vienna after the German seizure of Austria, but von Papen did not reappear in public life, and it was reported from Berlin last October that he was quitting the diplomatic service to attend to his private affairs.