Evening star., 1939-01-29

Readers OF The Star VINO take the
! cal operation on their own maps, viii
blankets all of Europe east of the Rhine.
! 1t stretches across Germany and Western
/ Poland, skirting the Ukraine, embraces
8 Rumania, what is left of Czecho-Slovakia,
Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia, the Adri-
attic, Italy, the Western Mediterranean
and Spain, including Ceuta at the tip
4 of Northwestern Africa, which is Span
! ish Morocco. From Ceuta the Franco
rebellion was launched. AS the Berlin
1 Rome Barcelona triangle tapers toward
I its southwestern corner, it envelops the
{ Balearic Islands of Majorca and Minorca,
! in idMediterranean, athWart Frances
! lifeline to her African colonial empire.
{ Events are marching with such kalei-
{ dosopic swiftness that little but specula-
{ ton is Immediately possible with respect
: to the next moves of the Fascist triple
\ alliance which springs automatically into
! existence with insurgent victory in Spain.
z That the Loyalists were defeated only
v because Gen. Francisco Franco was aided
: from start to finish by Germany and
. italy is to restate the obvious.
: Fascist Aid Sustained War.
: That the Nationalist campaign would
have collapsed long ago except for its
continual sustenance by German and
!, italian troops, German and Italian ar
tillery and aircraft, and German and
Italian munitions is equally undeniable.
In the earlier stages of the civil war the
Loyalists received armed assistance in
one form or another from Soviet Russia
and France, while Britons and Americans
fought or flew in the governments ranks,
individually or in semi organized units.
But at no time did republican Spain en-
Sjoy foreign military support on any scale
.approximating the help Franco had
from his black-shirt friends in Italy and
his brown-sh shirt friends in Germany
. Italy's contribution, of course, out
stripped that of all others. Her "volun-
teers," though not always VIGOROUSLY,
battled for Franco in divisional strength.
If there were any doubt about all this, it
would be dispelled by Mussolinis out
burst in Rome last Thursday. Exultantly
addressing a cheering crowd gathered to
celebrate the fall of Barcelona, II Duce
unblushingly bracketed "our fearless le-
sgionaries" with those of Gen. Frances
magnificent troops" as the victors in
Spain. In the same breath Mussolini
talked about "our enemies who are now
sbiting the dust" Frances ebullient ally
sat the Rome end of the Fascist axis, evil
4dently intoxicated by the eXuberance of
i the throng outside the Palazzo Venezia,
4 went farther After the mob shrieked
s"We want Corsica. We want Tunisia!"
/ Mussolini shouted: "Our enemies motto
was They shall not pass, but we did pass,
! and tell you we will continue to do sol"
: Subtlety is not among the arts of the
sautocrat of the Tiber. If his turbulence
{ means anything, it denotes that Italy
demands dividend on her investment
] of blood and treasure in the Spanish
peninsula during the last two and
half years. The next few days or
weeks may disclose the exact nature
of the bonus Mussolini requires for
! Italian Sacrifices on those gore-soaked
fields. He may demand direct compen-
I sation from Franco in the shape of the
right to establish naval, military and
air base in the Balearic Islands, which
would permit him to threaten South
eastern France from the sea and her
African possessions to the south and
west, Or most dangerous possibility of
all, to menace the French life line be-
: and Morocco.
May Shield Real Desire.
II Duce may know in advance that an
I lnsurgent-ruled Spain has no intention
ef parting with Majorca and Minorca,
thus surrendering its own highly strate-
gic midMediterranean position. But
mere Italian gesture of demanding terri
tory which would enable Mussolini to
sever the French Empires jugular vein
II would be powerful talking-not to say
blackmailng with a France that
now finds herself surrounded by Fascism
on three sdes-by Germany on the
northeast, by Italy on the southeast and
I by nationalist Spain across the Pyrenees
i on the south. In other words, should
Rome ask for the Balaerics, or anything
else in or from Spain, it may be nothing
but smokescreen for what Rome really
SidFCo-I 1CllCll CClOIlldl LerTlCOTy III
!, Africa, for the purpose of rounding out
: Emperor" Victor Emmanuel's empire
either Tunisia and Djibouti, the French
Somaliland gateway to Ethiopia, or
i both.
y So much for Italys plan to cash in
on the collapse of the Spanish Republic.
! What of Germany? That's an enigma
! on which some light may be thrown
Z tomorrow, when Chancellor Hitler ad-
dresses his puppet Reichstag on the
{ sixth anniversary of his accession to
{ dictatorship. Germany's participation
Z in frances victory does not measure up
Z to that of Italy. But all the world
remembers the part German air bombers
took in raining devastation on unde-
tended Spanish cities and the occasion
i on which German warship squadron
! bombarded Almeria on the Mediter-
s.ssnean coast as reprisal for alleged
Loyalist aircraft attacks on NaM ships.