A TEMPORARY RESPITE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 244, 16 October 1942, Page 2

A TEMPORARY RESPITE

NEAR EAST SAFE UNTIL SPRING.

P.A. Cable.

NEW YORK, Oct. 15.

Seeking corroboration of reports to Allied military intelligence sources in Istanbul indicating that the Germans have abandoned their plan to invade the Near East from Aegean bases, the New York Times correspondent at Smyrna says that he has received evidence from reliable quarters that an Axis attack on this area is impossible this fall, and the entire Near East is probably secure u.xtil the spring of 1943. The correspondent adds that reports received at Smyrna from German air bases at Les'bos, Chios and Samos disclose that the Germans and Italians have withdrawn all but skeleton garrison forces from the Greek islands and the Dodecanese. Allied military and naval circles say that the Germans committed the gravest error since their failure to attempt to invade England after the collapse of France, when last May they failed to attack weak defences in Syria and Palestine simultaneously with the Libyan offensive. Only the Turks were ready last May and an operation airned across Syria at Iraq's oil and into Palestine to sever Allied communications was feasible.