CHECK TO AXIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 20

CHECK TO AXIS.

(LONG WAR FORESEEN. NAZI PLANS TO ENLIST FRANCE (By COLONEL FREDERICK PALMER) NEW YORK, July 28. "Our bombers did tremendous damage —we brought down 10 enemy 'planes— their raid did little damage—one of our 'planes failed to return" is in order from either Berlin or Paris. Italy reports that she is steadily bombing the British Mediterranean Fleet to total destruction. Britain says the unharmed British Fleet has driven the Italian Fleet to cover and Italian 'planes register no hits. The climax of the claim-all-and-admit-nothing policy will come when it is not admitted that any 'plane ever failed to return. Rome and Berlin are quite certain Britain will be crushed this summer. Prime Minister Churchill looks ahead to a long war. He foresees Britain able to take the offensive in 1941 on the way to a decisive victory. Moreover, we do get the impression that British fighting 'planes are making a better showing, if outnumbered, than Ihe German. Also that, as much as the (ierman air raids over Britain are heralded, the Axis partners are concentrating their bombings more on warships and merchant shipping than on land. There are sources of information other than the divergent bulletins and statements which show that the Axis partners—even Italy—are also preparing for a long war. In 1941 they may be°still bombing British warships and shipping if they can retain superiority in the air. One contributing item to that view, which does not seem so at all at first thought, was the statement of Ambassador Bullitt that the conduct of the Germans ill France had been exceptional.

German Policy in France. This was confirmed to me in the reports which a great American bank had from its representatives who remained with its Parie branch. They have been quite undisturbed and had a much better time than their colleagues, who had to retreat to Bordeaux and then to Vichy. They have practically i-.o international business. The Germans want all business to serve their present and future programmes. Naturally the German eoldiers are behaving well in France. This does not mean that Adolf Hitler is a reformed character or his cold heart and calculating mind have been touched with chivalric sentiment. It is a matter of policy which will be faithfully applied from generals to robot privates. It makes the French more tolerant of the Germans ae a background for German propaganda, which plays up the British neglect of support and already stresses the fact that it is the British who are bombing the French Channel ports. The more incensed the French are against the British the more the French will accept German aggression against Britain as warranted. The more quiet and resigned the French population to German occupation the fewer German soldiers required to keep order and. the more for service elsewhere. And it is the Xavy of the British, the former ally, which is blockading all French ports, cutting off raw materials and shutting off France's vital export trade to America and all the world. Xot until the British sea command is broken can trade be resumed. Every German bomb dropped on a British warship or merchant convoy serves that end, as the French are being told. Xot only are our banking relations with France" affected, but American business is beginning to feel the results of the loss of export trade to France and the Low Countries and the whole Mediterranean basin. Prisoners For War Work. While we bear this we might also give a thought to German propaganda in France against Britain fighting alone as our first line of defence on the Atlantic as well ae to German propaganda in South America. Her imports from us are on the way to make up for the loss in the rest of Europe.

From another source, which cmnnot be mentioned lest the link of communication be broken, I learn that skilled mechanics are already being separated from among the French prisoners and assigned to plants under sentries to make arms and munitions for the Axie. This will ensure more 'planes and bombs for the Axis, more guns and tanks for the invasion of Britain. A winter coal famine in Italy ie to be averted. Where formerly she was largely dependent for her coal upon sea transport French railroad trains are bringing it from French and Belgian mines and steel ingots, too, mined and forged by French and Belgian prisoners. Food supplies, next to gasoline, are the real problem for the Axis partners for a long pull. The Poles, Czechs, Danes, Norwegians and finally the Frencfl may go hungry, and even the civil populations of Germany and Italy, but never the Fascist soldiers. Efforts to Blockade Britain. Italy's evident policy is to keep the British Fleet divided between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and at bay by bombing to make sure of a passage for her army to Tripoli, where she no longer faces a hostile French army on her Libyan frontier, and eventually attack the British force in Egypt. The more British soldiers Hitler can keep at home by threat of invasion the less likelihood of British reinforcement for Egypt. It appears reasonable to accept the Xezis' contention that they have sur- j face ships preying on British shipping from Norwegian bases in the North Sea j when the British naval guard is so widely spread. When Germany looses all the power of her Air Force it may concentrate against British warships and merchant convoys all the way from the Atlantic to the Scottish coast. Sufficient initial success warrants the continuance of this campaign to the eventual blockade of Britain. Failure of an invasion of Britain would be a heavy blow for Germany. With Britain having command of the sea Churchill would then have time for a long war and we have time for our defence preparations. Obviously the Axis partners will strain every effort to win this summer, 'but they, too, are preparing for I a long war.—N.A.N.A. I