The Nazis, Vichy and Madrid
An Admiralty communiqué issued on Tuesday shows how the Germans are seeking deliberately to stir up trouble between the British and French navies and between Britain and Spain by dastardly attacks on shipping which they are attributing to this country. A French communiqué of December 9th asserted that the steamer ' St. Denis,' carrying foodstuffs for France, was torpedoed near the Balearic Isles, and went on to assume that the attacking submarine was British. It was not. No British submarines were in the area. But it is known that German U-boats entered that part of the Mediterranean, and that their arrival was followed by a series of attacks on French and Spanish vessels, as well as British, some in Spanish territorial waters. It is pointed out that the " calculated brutality " with which the ' St. Denis ' was torpedoed stamped the attack as that of a German. Here is a remarkable, though we can hardly say sur- prising, example of the length to which the Nazis are prepared to go to imbroil Britain with France and Spain owing to their desperate need of strengthening their position in Africa. Defeated in Russia, facing defeat in Libya, they are seeking at all costs a means of making a diversion in the western Mediterranean with the help of Spain in the Straits region and of France in Tunisia. They have resorted to the treacherous plan of destroy- ing the ships of their supposed friends in the hope that the latter will put the blame on Britain. Spain's position is difficult, and her decision may be still doubtful. But she can hardly ignore the vital fact that she is getting food today by favour of Britain. Germany could give her none.
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