BERLIN REPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 October 1940, Page 7

BERLIN REPORT

MEETING “HISTORICAL & SYMBOLICAL” USE OF FRENCH NAVAL & AIR.BASES. SAID TO BE SOUGHT BY GERMANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 25. It is announced in Berlin today that Herr Hitler met the President cf the French Council of Ministers, Marshal Petain, “somewhere in • France” yesterday. The German Foreign Minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, and the Vice-President of the French Council of Ministers, M. Laval, were present at the conversations. A message from Vichy states that the meeting took place in Herr Hitler’s railway carriage in the German-occu-pied zone of France. Marshal Petain thus entered the occupied zone for- the first time since the nation's collapse . This meeting confirms reports that M. Laval was sent back to Vichy wiith a request that Marshal Petain himself should have a talk with Herr Hitler. Various statements from the Vichy side have indicated hopes of gaining the release of nearly 2,000,000 French prisoners of war and permission for the Government to return to Paris. Several reports agree that the German demands have been very much toned down and that the Germans now desire above all the use of naval and air bases in France and in French North- African territory. The increasing firmness of the Vichy Government against being driven into hostile action against Britain may have forced Herr Hitler to give up his cherished hopps and put forward less stringent demands. Berlin officials declare today that the meeting was “historical and symbolical" and speak of a spiritual revolution and Pan-European Union. In Washington the outcome of the discussion is being awaited with interest. The- Assistant Secretary of State. Mr Welles, was in conference with the Vichy Ambassador last night and is keeping President Roosevelt fully informed of developments.