FRANCO AND AXIS

Southland Times, 16 October 1942, Page 5

FRANCO AND AXIS

Actions In South America NEW YORK, October 14. “Spain is offering promises of continued neutrality and increasing cooperation with the United States while simultaneously thrusting the pro-Axis knife deeper into the back of South America,” says the Montevideo correspondent of the newspaper P.M. “General Franco is merely a puppet acting on Hitler’s orders while Spanish agents are carrying out Nazi instructions in South America. No Latin American country has as yet broken off diplomatic relations with Spain, which leaves Franco’s representatives under the cloak of diplomatic immunity and free to assist the Axis. “Some of the United States good neighbours, particularly Uruguay, Cuba and Mexico, are becoming fed up with Spanish actions, but hesitate to move in the face of the British-American tendency to string along with Franco. Many Latin Americans under-rate the Spanish influence and effort, which is just what Goebbels wants. Spanish ships are arriving regularly, untroubled by submarines, bringing more and more diplomatic aids, fifth columnists and plenty of propaganda.”