The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-25
SWISS ARE TOLD
ACCORD REACHED
Bern Reports Say Petain
Now In Paris To Sign
New Nazi Treaty

BERN, Switzerland, Oct. 24.-R
Marshall PHILIPPE Petain, chief of
state of France, left Vichy today, ac-
cording to word reaching diplomatic
sources here, to go to Paris where
it. was believed he would sign a new
French-G German agreement suppressed
ing the existing armistice accord.
He was accompanied by several
aides, including the minister Of JUS
tice, the reports said.
The news was first received
through diplomatic channels be-
cause correspondents and officials at
Vichy we're under strict orders to
give no details of the marshal's de-
parture, his destination or the pur-
pose of his trip.
Vice = Premier Pierre Laval also
left today for Paris, where Tuesday
he conferred with Adolf Hitler and
German Foreign Minister Joachim
Won R~ibbentrop, presumably con
corning Frances role in Hitler's
new ORDER in Europe.
(Hitler, who conferred with SPANS
leader, Generalissimo Francisco
Franco, at the French-Spanish bor-
der yesterday, might have been back
in Paris. today to meet the 84-year-
old Petain.)
Reports of the German fuehrer's
talks with Laval and Franco received
here said they had laid the ground
work for an Axis offensive not only
in the Mediterranean but in the
South Atlantic as we'll.
informed French sources S a i d
Hitler and Laval had put the fin
lshing touches to an agreement
whereby the Vichy government
would give the Axis powers use
of air and naval bases in Africa.
Syria and ~unoccupied France in
return for certain concessions.
At the same time reports reach.
ing diplomatic quarters indicated
that n of the subjects discussed
by Hitler and Franco was the pos
slble use of Spanish ports and air
fields in the Atlantic and the Ca
nary Islands as a springboard for
Nazi attacks on Britain's South At
lantic trade.
These sources envisioned a cam
paign in which Italy and Spain
would attempt to seize Gibraltar
and smash Britain's power in the
Mediterranean while Germany and
Spain struck at Britain's trade
with South America as well as her
sea link with India by way of the
Cape of Good Hope.
The bases involved in the agree
ment reported now under consider
alton by the French government
are strategically situated for an
Axis offensive in the Mediterran.
can.
The agreement, which would su.
persede the existing armistice
terms, would make the French
fleet responsible for defense of the
naval bases but would not other.
wise involve its use by the Axis
powers for war against Britain,
these sources declared.
In return, it was said, Germany
would release all French wal pris.
oners and would move the frontier
of the area of France u%noccupied
by German forces northward from
Tours and the Swiss frontier to the
Seine river.
Paris, which straddles the Seine,
would be placed under a special
regime, with part of the city ruled
by the government of Premier
Philippe Petain and part by Ger
man authorities, it was said.
The naval bases which would
fall to the Axis under the projected
agreement we're described as Da.
kar, capital of French West Afri.
ca; Toulon, on Frances Mediter.
ranean coast; Casablanca, in
French Morocco, and Bizerte, in
Tunisia.