FIFTH COLUMN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 299, 30 April 1941, Page 3

FIFTH COLUMN

NAZI SPY MENACE IN AFRICM ' iSfazi intrigues in North Africa] are causing increasing apprehension?! in Britain, particularly in view p£i Admiral Darlan's ambitions and, connivance at German ments. - - The Daily Telegraph's diplomatic! correspondent says that the ful use of agents, whose power to£ undermine the administrative, nav-| al, and military situation is out ofa all proportion to* their numbers,J has enabled. Germany to prepare ground for l'resh threats againsta British shipping in the and Mediterranean, Germany will also soon be exploiting French North Africa's econ- : omic resources. Information has also reached London that immediately the Spaniards; permitted the re-establishment of the German Consulate-General at Tangier the Nazis installed 200 spies, and agents, whose sphere' extends to French Morocco. It is believedthat many more are en route. Swastika in Morocco. The Daily Express correspondent at Tangier says Hitler is financing a native Fifth Column, many thousands strong, in French Morocco, which is gravely worrying the authorities there. I The Germans are playing on Moroccan national aspirations, usingv, the 60-year-old .ex-Sultan, Moulay el Aziz, as a figureheads These moves are supported by the Moroccan Unity Party, which aims to reunite French and Spanish Moroccos as a step towards independence, and by the adventurous: Falan--gist extremists. Both are under trol andi in the pay of the. German Armistice Commission-. A recent Moorish ceremony included in the raising of the swastika flag. Many agitators, wearing the swastika badge, have started a whispering campaign' demanding the" expulsion of the British from Morocco and declaring that Hitler and Mussolini are the Moors' best friends.