GERMANY'S AIMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24627, 7 June 1941, Page 9

GERMANY'S AIMS

; A CLASH IN SYRIA BRITISH AND FRENCH FORCES HEAVY PRESSURE ON VICHY :■:■'. : : c : (United Press Association) • '■•- . ;v :_'. - (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) , ■','... (Rec. lam,) ; LONDON, June 6. The Vichy Cabinet met again this morning, when the heads of .the colonial'administrations were in attendance. Marshal Petain presided and Admiral Darlan was also present. The presence of 'the colonial administrators suggests that the Cabinet discussed not toly Syria, but the whole situation in regard to the French Empire. The way the Germans are working to provoke a clash between British and French forces over Syria has been elearly shown recently by their propaganda. The Germans are pressing Vichy hard. The German- ;■' controlled Brussels radio announced that General Weygand will shortly visit Syria to co-ordinate the defences there '; against British aggression. - : The British Government is well aware of what is happening in Syria, but naturally nothing of its plans has been disclosed. .-The Daily. Express correspondent on the Syrian frontier says Dr vonßoser, Hitler's •' •undercover '•'. man in Syria, virttially took over the. country from the French to-day, and a great round-up of anti-Nazis has been begun at Beirut, where secret police and house-to-house searchers roped in hundreds Of pro-British people and sent them to Damascus; : ; ,*"' The Germans warned the port authorities at Beirut that they must spoil'' make room for German E-boats and submarines, which must be given equal facilities with the French navy: The French in Syria aiid Lebanon .are reported to be repairing and extending military aerodromes on the recommendation of the Germans and tinder expert -German guidance. 'German infiltration is now developing into open arrivals both by -seg and air,: enemy activity being particularly noticeable in Beirut, where; a large v proportion of the peopje are pro-British. Some arrests among the civilian community have been made and others have peen'forced.to leave the country; '} Sympathy for Britain ois growing not only throughout".;. -\J ' the Freiith Colonial Empire but also in France itself. Hundreds of letters are pouring into the United States Embassy in Paris indicating rising feeling against the Germans, and messages from General de Gaulle and his sup- * porters are being freely circulated. s Herr Abetz will return to Paris shortly with the latest German proposals 'for Franco-German collaboration, and Admiral Darlan will shortly pay another visit to the capital.