TRIPARTITE PACT RECRUITS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21280, 26 November 1940, Page 4

TRIPARTITE PACT RECRUITS

Hungary led what Germany hopes 1 will be a procession of States to join the pact founded by Germany, Italy and Japan. Rumania followed, and now Bulgaria has sent its representative to Berlin, presumably with the same objective in view. If Bulgaria signs the pact, German-controlled territory will be continuous from the English Channel to the frontiers of Turkey and Greece. Whether the Nazi dream of a great confederation of States under the pact will be realised remains to be seen, but there are several significant facts in that connection that are worthy of notice. The new adherents to the pact are not important from the wider military point of view. Their allegiance, or subservience, to Germany was probably just as close before they attached their signatures to the pact. What Hitler undoubtedly hoped was to gain the affiliation of the greater Powers, including Russia, Spain and France. It is a fairly safe assumption that the series of visits that began in Spain and France and extended to Russia and the Balkans had the primary objective of persuading all those States to enter into the agreement. It will be remembered that German and Italian publicists announced during the discussions that decisions that would decide the future of the world were being made. So far the result has been merely the addition of two or three unimportant signatures to the pact. Where do Russia, Spain and France stand ? Why have they not accepted the German proposals for a new world order and signed on the dotted line ? As far as can be ascertained, the much-publicised interchange of visits has left the position of those three Powers largely as it was before. Possibly they desire to see performances from Hitler rather than promises of a new and desirable order or, more probably, they may have very different ideas from those of Hitler regarding what a desirable future for Europe should be. The indications are that the present loose arrangement with the Nazis is as far as Stalin is prepared to go in that direction unless Hitler is prepared to guarantee that the future of Europe will be more nearly in accord with the Russian dictator’s own political convictions. Spain and France should both be even more difficult to convince.