AXIS PACT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24132, 26 November 1941, Page 8

AXIS PACT

SIGNING BY FINLAND VICHY NOT INVITED CONFERENCE IN BERLIN (Reed. 10.30 p.m.) _ LONDON, Nov. 25 The British United Press correspondent in Helsinki says it is officially stated that Finland is signing the Anti-Comintern Pact. Berlin reports that new countries that have adhered to the Anti-Comin-tern Pact are Spain, Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Rumania, Slovakia, Croatia and China (as represented by the Nanking Government). Spain was referred to for the first time by the British Broadcasting Corporation to-day as an Axis-controlled country. Representatives of the signatories of the Anti-Comintern Pact,, who are meeting in Berlin, will renew the pact to-day for a further five years, says the British United Press, correspondent in Berlin. This correspondent says that only the six original adherents—Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Hungary and Manehukuo—will sign the renewal, although Hitler has invited representatives of European countries under German domination to attend the ceremony. The vassal countries represented will be Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and Rumania. Hitler did not invite Sweden, Switzerland or Vichy to send representatives. The GermJin propaganda machine is doing its utmost to boost the ceremony as a big German diplomatic victory. Lavish social preparations are being made. The German-controlled radios at first (stated that Finland and Rumania would sign the pact, but this was later denied, ways the correspondent. The Tokio newspaper Nielli Niolii said that Japan's participation in the Anti-Comintern conference would not violate the Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact since the Anti-Comintern agreement was aimed at the Third Internationale and not at the Soviet Union. The German news agency says that Count Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister, has arrived in Berlin. It is obvious that Hitler is still hoping to stage a great conference of friendly and vassal States to demonstrate the solidarity of Europe behind Germany, says the British official wireless. The present meeting is a stopgap—the best Hitler is able to do in the circumstances after the exposure of his plans for a more'amiable meeting.