LAVAL & THE AXIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1942, Page 4

LAVAL & THE AXIS

REPORTED “PEACE PACT” GIVING UNDIVIDED NAZI CONTROL. FORTIFICATION OF COASTS OF MEDITERRANEAN. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 11. A peace pact has been signed between Germany and Vichy France, says the Stockholm “Allehanda”’ which does not give the source of the report, but it is pointed out m London that the announcement follows reports of a meeting between Hitler, Mussolini and Laval. Earlier the British United Press Madrid correspondent said it was rumoured that a new Franco-German agreement was pending, under which Germany would totally occupy France and take delivery of the French fleet, and insist on the conscription of French workers for Germany. Laval is reported as being urged to declare war against the Allies but was endeavouring to avoid definite commitment The Swiss newspaper “La Suisse's” Berlin correspondent says it is reported that Mussolini has agreed to Germany taking over military control of the entire Italian coastline. Stockholm reports state that German and Italian troops are feverishly fortifying the French Mediterranean and Corsican coasts. The Italian coastal zone from Genoa to Spezia, it is reported, is being evacuated. The Vichy radio says a Havas dispatch from’ Tunis denied that Axis forces had landed in Tunisia.