AXIS PROPAGANDA

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21367, 11 March 1941, Page 5

AXIS PROPAGANDA

PROMISES TO MOSLEMS NAZI POISON SPREAD WARNING TO BRITAIN iUnited Press Assi .—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, March 9 Axis propagandists are spinning a cunning web of post-war promises throughout the Moslem world, and redoubling their efforts to make friends in the oil lands, says the Daily Telegraph's Cairo correspondent. Britain must make up her mind about peace aims in the Middle East, where 100,000 loud speakers are spreading the poison of Berlin, while paid whisperers are busy in the bazaars of Cairo and Bagdad and boatmen and beggars spread insidious talk in the villages of the Euphrates Valley. The Germans promise that the Jews will be driven from Palestine and the French from Syria, that the pasha class will lose power in Egypt in favour of the fallaheen, and that Germany will sponsor an Arab federation. Germany has only one Minister in the Middle East but is making the most of his services, the correspondent adds. The sinister figure of Fritz Grobba, who before the war was German Minister to Bagdad, flits constantly across the scene. He was last reported at Abadan, in Iran, where there is a big oil refinery. Vast Propaganda Machine The staff of the German Legation at Teheran, capital of Iran, numbers hundreds. It is organising a vast underground propaganda machine. Even the French newspaper at Teheran gets nearly all its news from the official German news agency. Teheran is the only important capital in Asia without a daily English newspaper. The Arabs of the Middle East listen to broadcasts from Berlin by Bahri, an Iraki condemned to death in absentia, not because they sympathise with Hitler but because Bahri is funny and exciting, whereas, the Arabs say, the London broadcasts are refined and dull. The British could have gained Bahri’s services, but turned down the offer. Bagdad newspapers are never openly pro-Axis, but equally are not enthusiastically pro-British. The military junta controlling Irak has not declared its hand. Irak’s last open move in the war game was a refusal to break off diplomatic relations with Italy last June. Prayers for British Victory German influence is weaker in Saudi Arabia. Pilgrims at Mecca last year openly prayed for Britain’s victory which is the nearest indica- * tion obtainable of public opinion in Saudi Arabia. rect and friendly in his dealings with Britain, but a close adviser is the mysterious El Korkani. He is an exiled Libyan and therefore presumably hates the Italians, but he went to Berlin in 1939 to buy rifles for King Ibn-Saud and talked with Hitler. German influence is stated to be responsible for the disturbances causing the closure of the Damascus market. Dozens of exiled Syrian agitators have been rounded up by Berlin to help in spreading rumours. 70,000 TROOPS BRITISH IN ICELAND (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, March 9 Seventeen Icelanders who have arrived from Reykjavik, commenting on the German report of bombing of the Iceland airport in February, said that only reconnaissance machines flew over the island. They said that 70,000 Canadian and British troops were stationed in Iceland. The Bremen wireless said the German authorities tonight were going to lift the state of siege proclaimed in northern Holland on February 26.