The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-06
HITLER HAS EYES
 ON NORTH AFRICA
Diverts Attention to Bal. kans While Making Deal
 With French Officials
BY FREDERICK KUH limited Press Staff COrresnOndeMt

BY FREDERICK KUH
 United Press Staff Correspondent
 London, March 6.-(UP)-Diplo- matic and military circles today re- ported growing evidence that Adolf Hitler Is making a strenuous effort to gain a foothold in French North Africa while the attention of the world is diverted to Balkan matters.
 They e:Aa.d that they had little confidence in the ability of Marshal Henri Philippe Petain to withstand German pressure for bases in Africa.
 (Gen. Maxine Weygand, French commander-in- in Africa, has gone to Vichy for a mysterious con- ference with Petain. It is the first trip back to France for Weygand since lie. went to Africa after the French collapse.)
 Hitler, 1t was believed by many here. Is following his familiar tac- tics of attempting to create "series of options in order to confuse his enemies as to where and when his main blow wll, fall.
 ,(Both Berlin and Rome reported that Axis authorities had declined on military ground" any comment on reports that Germany Is mov- ing 2 major military force to North Africa .)-''
 Proposed Options z.
 Hitler's proposed options" as seen here are these: '
 IA diplomatic and, If necessary, a military offensive, to force Greece out of the war and deprive Britain of It's only foothold on the conti- nent.
 2-An attempt with at least pas. sive agreement of Vichy to get bases ia North Africa in order to close the Sicilian channel between Sicily and French Tun!sia and possibly to close the Gibraltar straits.
 3-A possible move into Spain and Portugal in order to obtain subma- rine and air bases to extend the blockade at sea and to threaten Gibraltar from the north.
 The first official British indicat ton that Nazt infiltration In North Africa is reaching serious propor- tions was given in the House of Commons yesterday by Richard A. Butler. undersecretary for foreign affairs.
 Nov in North Africa
 Butler said that considerable members of German technicians and uniformed armed forces are now ir French North Africa. Gen. Charles DeGaulle Issued a similar warning last week, adding that infiltration was also reported from Syria.
 There was little confidence among diplomats of neutral countries still represented at Vichy that France could withstand German pressure. It was said that the reports of United States Ambassador William D. Leahy to Washington have been peSsimiStic on this point. .'
 Confidence in Balkan. quarters that Greece after all may resist Ger man attack with British support was growing.
 However, experts on the terrain of northern Greece suggested that 1t was most unlikely that the Greeks and British would repeat the Allied effort of the World War to base a campaign on Salonika. It was pointed out that a Salonika campaign would mean that the Brit ish and the Greeks would fight on 8 narrow front with their backs to the sea and with defense in depth, impossible.
 Best Strategy Military sources said the best strategy appeared to be for the Greeks to withdraw from the Jugo- Slav frontier north of EdesSa and abandon Salonika and the thin wedge of Macedonia to the Ger mans.
 They then could concentrate their strength along a narrow AL banian front ard an even narrower eastern front against the Germans. This line would cover a German advance along the Struma River Valley from Bulgaria and an ad- vance from the vardar Valley of Jugoslavia.
 It would allow the Germans to reach the Aegean Sea at Salonika, however. and split Greece and Tur. key. But military opinion contend ed that Macedonia Is indefepsible in. any event.
 Balkan sources believed that the Greeks could hold this shortened line for long time while the Royal Ar Force pounded away at German communications in Bulgaria and oil supplies in Rumania.
 The Turks. remaining on the de. fensive. would constitute an impress siye threat to the German flank.