ABOUT TO EMBARK?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1941, Page 5

ABOUT TO EMBARK?

VICHY TROOPS AT SALONIKA. SOME CONFLICTING STORIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, July 4. A new development in Syria is reported, without confirmation, from Ankara and from Cairo. The Associated Press of America’s Ankara correspondent says neutrals report having seen Vichy troops at Salonika, about to embark for Syria. The neutrals say that at least one regiment is en route to Syria. British military sources, the report, continued, allege the reinforcement of the French Air Force from North Africa, via Greece and the Dodecanese Islands. The British said that even a small-scale increase in the defence strength would possibly prolong the conflict. The Germans are anxious to'"see the French resistance stiffened in the East until the invasion of Russia is concluded, when the drive to the Suez Canal will be resumed. The British United Press Cairo correspondent learns on good, though unofficial, authority that Vichy troops are concentrated in Salonika ready for an attempt to reach Syria by sea. The Turkish Press, however, continues to hint that Vichy forces are seeking a means of escape from Syria. One paper says: “According to certain information, the Vichy French may have recourse to the benevolence of Turkey, in order to get out of the country.” Cairo experts, commenting on the capture of Palmyra, express the opinion that the British, pushing on to Syrian Tripoli, may drive a wedge between the Vichy forces north of the pipe-line and those in the south.