AXIS BASES IN S. AMERICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 301, 22 December 1941, Page 6

AXIS BASES IN S. AMERICA

UNITED STATES FINDINGS DETAILED ACCOUNT OF CONTROLLED AIRPORFS (Recd. 7.30.) Washington, Dec. 20. The House Committee on Axis activities in South America issued the following findings:— Firstly: 'lhe Axis controls five airports in Guatemala within easy bombing distance of the Panama Canal. The staff of the German Legation in Guatemala includes two Nazi crack pilots. Secondly: The Axis has built up vast stocks of petrol and oil m Brazil and has probably established secret storages along the coastline and the Amazon River. Thirdly: The Axis maintains in a Japanese settlement in Colombia, in the Andes Mountains, vast storages of rifles, ammunition, revolvers and grenades Fourthly: The German Legation in Guatemala maintains 14 short-wave radio sets. Fifthly: The German Ambassador in Mexico is the chief ol the South American Gestapo, which maintains lin Guatemala -its own secret law court to try and punish offenders against Nazi laws. Sixthly: The Nazis perfected plans to sabotage all public utilities in Buenos Aires and prepared to establish bases in Argentina. Seventhly: The Nazis concealed a secret radio set in a diplomatic bag recently seized by the Argentine Government.

Eighthly: Ship departures from the United States were reported to Mexico City, from wncre they were transmitted to Berlin.

Ninthly: Luftwaffe officers established a secret airport at the western end of the Colombian plainland, near Voa Vista,

Tenthly: Nazi agents hatched a plot inside the Argentine Air Force.

The committee recommended a State Department to counteract Axis activities immediately.

(Recd. 7.30 p.m.) Washington, Dec. 20 The House of Representatives passed a Bill classing the American Communist Party and the GermanAmerican Bund “direct agents of foreign governments." Therefore members. officers and directors are liable to register with the Department of Justice as foreign agents.