TRANSIT OF SPAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24605, 13 May 1941, Page 7

TRANSIT OF SPAIN

PASSAGE FOR NAZI TROOPS FRANCO GIVES PERMISSION THREAT TO GIBRALTAR (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, May 11. The correspondent of The Times on the French frontier says private reports indicate that M. Peitri, the French Ambassador in Madrid, called on Marshal Petain at Vichy and notified him that General Franco had given Herr Hitler a written permit to march across Spain to Gibraltar at a , date left for Herr Hitler’s discretion, but the second half of this month is envisaged. According to these reports, General Franco declared lie was unable longer to resist Berlin’s pressure, especially as Herr Hitler undertook tp supply ample food to Spain. Although this has been only now disclosed to Marshal Petain, General Franco gave Herr Hitler the permit some time ago and the document has been used in Paris as a basis for negotiations between Admiral Darlan, M. Laval and Herr Abetz, culminating in the publication in the French press of Herr Hitler’s consent to reduce the occupation charges, and partially to erase the demarcation line between occupied and unoccupied France. The price to which Admiral Darlan and M. Laval agreed, subject to Marshal Petain’s consent, was aerodromes, but nothing else, for Germany to use in Syria and the use of certain French railways ■rr to'wspaih lor the transporting of German troops to Gibraltar. .'Admiral Darlan immediately “banner-lined” the French press with the object of generating a tremendous popular wave of hope among the French masses and confronting Marshal Petain with a fait accompli—Admiral Darlan calculating that Marshal Pertain would keenly fear the consequences of disappointing the masses by rejecting the Darlan-Laval proposals. Confronted with General Franco’s signature Admiral Darlan asserts that he could not refuse the German demand, especially as Herr Hitler additionally promised that at the final peace settlement France would not be asked to make territorial cessions to Italy, and, , as compensation for. the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, would receive other French-speaking territories elsewhere —adjacent to the prewar French frontiers —in the whole scheme of establishing a new European order. No word of this agreement has yet been published in the German press because Marshal Petain’s endorsement is awaited, but France’s exit frpm the League of Nations indicates that Admiral Darlan prepared the coup long ago, because that step legally terminates the Syrian mandate. ‘ ' Marshal Petain is expected point-blank to refuse to accept the transaction because it will mean a clear violation of the armistice.