Ankara, June 8, from Turkey before the French Turkish circles were of the opinion yesterday that Nazi Germany was preparing to mess a tremendous concentration of 1,000000 men and heavy tanks in Libya for an attack on the Suez Canal, and was using Syria more as a diversion in order to split the British forces in the Near and Middle East, It was Believed here that it would be too difficult to bring heavy German equipment to Syria for attacks on the heavily fortified frontiers of Palestine, hence Germany was principally interested in establishing air bases there and thus force the British to divide their attention, Much of the war material in French hands in Syria was received capitulation and most of this was outmoded for modern war.
Turkish circles were also con-convinced that the rumoured reduction of German forces in the south Balkans meant that Hitler has no intention, at least for a long time, of marching through Turkey into the Near East, Many British circles believed that the Germans were making efforts to incite the British to attack Syria in order to achieve a final break between Vichy and London on the theory that the French Fleet, Tunis and "Dakar—which might be made available to Germany in the event of a French-British conflict—were more important to the Germans than Syria—United Press, Army Commanders have
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.