MAY JOIN AXIS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 14, 13 October 1942, Page 3

MAY JOIN AXIS

WAITING TO SEE SUEZ FALL

SPAIN'S POSITION TO-DAY

"General Franco's settled, plan is to join the Axis actively whenever the Suez Canal falls to Field-Mar-shal Rommel's forces, but nof fore," says; the French journalist "Pertinax" in an articlc published in Washington. "Pertinax" is now living in the United States.

Inquiries made in authoritative quarters in Washington to determine the actual basis of his conclusion seem to indicate that Spain's position is causing some alarm in United Nations quarters.

It is reported, for instance, that General Franco, who lias boasted how he can put in the field an army of from 2,000,000 to 3,0i00,000 has begun to shift, large numbers of troops to Spanish Morocco and the Spanish islands commanding the sea approaches to the Strait of Gibraltar.

Some Washington quarters hold that if the German Caucasus and the Middle East campaigns seem certain of success, Franco, in conjunction with Portugal, and even with Vichy, hopes to enlist the assistance of the Vatican about a negotiated pcace and' put himself at the head of a block of Catholic nations plaj'ing an influential role in post-*war Europe.