GERMAN BAYONETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1940, Page 5

GERMAN BAYONETS

AVAILABLE TO ASSIST MUSSOLINI PRESS VIEWS IN LONDON. NEED OF PRESSING ATTACK ON ITALY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. December 1. The magnificent campaign carried out by the Greeks gives rise to speculations as .to ,the effect on Italian and German relations of this serious reverse suffered by the Axis junior partner ( which this morning’s Greek High Command announcement that advanced units entered .Pogradec will do nothing to allay. The “Observer,” describing the war says: “So far as it is a war of independence waged by a little Power against a great Power, it is one of the classic campaigns in all military history.” The “Sunday Times,” discussing the Axis relationship, states: “One must remember, however, not merely the fighting alliance between Italy and Germany but the personal or, to be more precise, professional tie that has so long united the two dictators. Neither can really afford to see the other go down. “If German bayonets were required in Italy to keep Mussolini in power they would be sent. We need not be alarmed at their advent. Hitler can earn no gratitude nor friendship from the Italian people. He cannot feed them nor prevent us from blockading and bombing them. He can merely add one more, in effect, to the list of occupied countries. It will be a further tax on his strength and a further millstone round his neck when he reaches deep water. | “Our task and therefore that of our armed forces is for the present clear. It is to continue hitting the Italian forces hard and often and in as many places as we can.” TURKS RESOLVED BLUNT REPLY TO NAZI OVERTURE., LONDON. December 1. Ankara has given a blunt reply to the Italian suggestion that Turkey is considering favourably German proposals that she should join the new order and to German assurances that the Axis has no designs in the Balkans. The Ankara radio last night pointed out that the Axis had tried to invade the Balkans on two flanks but that the plan had failed utterly owing to Italy’s defeat by Greece. “There are people who prefer not to shed their blood for the schemes of others, but who will die for their own independence,” it was added.

JOB FOR STARACE SUPPRESSION OF UNREST IN ALBANIA. LONDON, December 1. The Greek wireless says the Chief of Staff of the Fascist Militia, Signor Starace, has arrived in Albania to supervise measures to suppress the increasing anti-Italian agitation, including the closure of Albanian schools in which pictures of Mussolini are reported to have been torn from the walls.