GENERAL FRANCO’S ASSURANCE

Southland Times, Issue 24300, 4 December 1940, Page 7

GENERAL FRANCO’S ASSURANCE

(Received December 3, 8.15 p.m.) MADRID, December 2.

The British Ambassador, Sir Samuel Hoare, and the Minister of the Interior, Senor Serrano Suner, signed the British-Spanish Financial Agreement. In London The Daily Telegraph says it is emphasized that the agreement is purely economic.

There are no political clauses or understandings attached. Spain, nevertheless, is fully aware that the benefits will cease if she throws in her lot with the Axis. General Franco recently gave, an assurance to Britain and the United States that Spain would not enter the war or allow it to spread to the Peninsula.

Germans three crashed and two pilots were killed. The Germans then tried to counteract sabotage by using French pilots, but this ceased because the Germans feared that the planes would be flown to England.

HATRED OF GERMANS

The article gives details of numerous incidents which illustrate the French hatred of the Germans. German soldiers are ordered to keep together when out sight-seeing. This is done for their own protection. Communist cells are active in Lyons and hundreds of Frenchmen in key positions in the police and administrative offices are doing their utmost to hinder the Germans and to assist escaped prisoners. Wherever possible the French are assisting British prisoners.

A Vatican broadcast to France compared the lot of the French people today with that of the early Christians when faced by persecution which, it said, must always be the lot of those who had to choose between following God and obeying man. The Moscow radio reports that, while certain articles on ration cards cannot in some districts be obtained, the French Government has ample foodstuffs at its disposal. It has, however, no oil for transport and cannot distribute them.

Herr Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the Gestapo, has conferred with the military governors of Holland, Norway and occupied France concerning drastic repressive measures in the- occupied territories.

In Holland Dutch students have been earned against demonstrations of dissatisfaction which “do not help the people whom you favour.” They have been warned to “give it up before it is too late.”

In Norway the harbours are being more brightly illuminated because the number of Germans who “fall” into them and are drowned is increasing. In this way many Germans have suffered the same fate as those who have “fallen” into the canals in Holland. There the number of deaths in this way is increasing.

The Daily Telegraph states that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of communists have been arrested in France as a result of a recrudescence of communist propaganda. Those arrested include Louis Thorez, a brother of Maurice Thorez, the French communist leader. NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY WASHINGTON, December 2. The Army Air Corps has released to the Royal Air Force a magnesium light device enabling night photography over enemy territory.