POLITICAL RESHUFFLE

Evening Star, Issue 24292, 5 September 1942, Page 5

POLITICAL RESHUFFLE

DEVELOPMENTS IN SPAIN REGARDED AS FAVOURABLE FOR DEMOCRACIES NEW YORK, September 3. The Washington correspondent of the * New York Times ’ says that the reshuffle of the Spanish Government is regarded as favourable for the democracies. since Senor Suner was conspicuously pro-Axis. Observers hesitate to express a definite opinion until it can be discerned to what extent the shakeup has resulted from frictions inside the Falange, but they point out that Washington recently started efforts to maintain Spain as a non-belligerent buffer between occupied Europe and Gibraltar and Africa. Furthermore, Spanish-American relations are improving, because General Franco is believed to bo determined upon neutrality. Washington sources have also received reports that the Sp anish Church and army are increasingly opposed to Senor Suner’s pro-Nazi policy. The Berne correspondent of the ‘ New York Times ’ says informed circles interpret the reshuffle as the first of several moves preceding the return of ex-King Alfonso's son, Don Juan, to the throne. The whereabouts of the ousted Ministers is unknown, but it is reported that Senor Suner, who is considered responsible for Spain’s equivocal position, has left Madrid ■'or an undisclosed destination. It is rumoured that he intended a coup d’etat to forestall the monarchial restoration, " KEEP OUT " SIGN WARNING TO BERLIN LONDON, September 3. “The long-expected showdown between the Spanish army and the Falange, which is Spain’s Fascist Party, has suddenly burst with the dismissal of Senor Suner, who is the principal Falangist boss,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the * Daily Telegraph.’ “ The whole shake-up may be read in Berlin as a ‘ keep out ’ sign. General Franco has found that he can no longer temporise and has had to swing_ right over to the army, whose opposition to Senor Suner and to the Falauge’s home and foreign policy has been mounting for months. Senor Snnor’s pro-Ger-manism was intense, but he was compelled to observe a certain restraint in foreign affairs, probably at General Franco’s orders. “ During Senor Suner’s control the Falauge has been a tool in Germany’s hands. Falangists have been introduced into all departments of the State’s activities,! with the single exception of the army, which is free from any form pf party control. The array as a wholo is fundamentally monarchist, and ' the higher officers are intensely nationalist. They are pro-Spanish and nothing else. They do not want to see Spain used as a German pawn, and would put up a determined if not a desperate resistance to any German plans for invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. SUBMARINE ATTACK OFF AUSTRALIAN COAST SYDNEY, September 4. _ Four pf the crew were killed and six were injured when an Allied merchant ship was attacked by an enemy submarine off the New South Wales coast about two months ago. The news has just been released in a communique from General MacArthur’s headquarters, which states that the ship w r as damaged but reached port. The stern of the vessel was a crumpled mass of wreckage. Two torpedoes were fired at the freighter, and the first hit the stern, making a shambles of the crew’s quarters, where 22 men were sleeping, and blowing away the rudder and part of the propeller. The second torpedo passed by the stern of the ship, and then the submarine fired a single shell across the bows of the stricken vessel before ordering the crew to abandon the ship. The crew wore afloat in two lifeboats for more than an hour before volunteers remanned the freighter, repaired the radio, and sent out an SOS. In the meantime the submarine, which was of the large ocean-going type, disappeared, apparently believing that the freighter was doomed The sh : t> drifted aimlessly until tugs arrived and towed her to port. NAZI TERRORISM TERRIBLE CONDITIONS IN SLOVENIA LONDON, September 4. The Slovenes have sent appeals to London for a continuance of the threats of reprisals against the Italians and the Germans for outrages. The appeals say that the conditions in Slovenia are terrible, but the regime of terror has decreased as the result of the threats from London. Yugoslav circles in London say that 311 hostages have been shot in the last 10 days in Yugoslavia. Italian troops ravaged 104 villages, of which 16 were completely burned down. The German authorities in Upper Carniola wiped out 10 villages, killing all the males. All men between 15 and 60 were deported from areas along the railway lines for fear of sabotage. Entire families are carried off if one member is absent from home without an explanation. YUGOSLAVIA'S AGONY MESSAGE FROM KING PETER (British Official Wireless.) Klee. 10.10 a.m.) RUGBY. Sept. 4, King Peter of Yugoslavia sent a message for use in the services of intercession for Yugoslavia and of thanksgiving for the steadfastness of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which are to be held on September 20 in Westminster Abbey and many cathedrals and churches in Britain, Ireland, the United States, and throughout the dominions. The message says: “Bitter and heavy though the price is which we paid and must continue to pay, I and my peoples never looked back upon the decision we took on March 29, 1941. when, in refusing to become his vassals and instruments for enslaving others, wo rejected the fair words of the Nazi Fuhrer.” After dealing with the agony of his country under Nazi oppression and reaffirming the decision of his people to fight on to victory, he adds: “ The Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes will be stirred, strengthened, and heartened with me to know that intercession is to be offered for Yugoslavia and thanksgiving for their steadfastness.”