"While the world has been engrossed with Hitler's various military adventures, his acttivities in the nature of peaceful penetration have to a large extent been overlooked. The situation in Switzerland is still obscure, but apart from that country and with the notable exception of the British Isles and, possibly Portugal, the whole of Europe may be said to be entirely within the Axis net. The penetration of Italy and Spain by German agents has proceeded to such an extent that those two countries may be said to be just as completely under German domination as any of the other European nations which have been overrun, Much has been made of the anxiety of General Franco to keep Spain out of this war, and it is very much to his credit that he has succeeded in doing so up to the present. But how much longer he will be able to do so is entirely another matter. A careful analysis of the Spanish situation, based upon British and Spanish announcements, items in the Spanish Press and the considered statements of foreign diplomats and recent visitors to Madrid, says.the British "News Review," reveals the extent of Axis penetration into Spain and the amount of cooperation which Franco has been compelled to concede to the Germans.
It is stated that there are no fewer than 80,000 German technicians, engineers and clerks in the country. The diplomatic and Gestapo services account for another 20,000 while German troops, either in mufti, or uniform, amount to 40,000 with an additional 5,000 members of the Hitler Youth who are more or less permanent guests of the Phalongist youth groups, In other words 135,000 Germans are in Spain in key positions, with about.400 technical advisers in ministries and governmental administrative departments. Spanish mines are being exploited to the limit, factories in and around Valencia ure working full pelt on the production of aft and coastal guns, and Vigo is transformed into a first class naval e under a contract worth over ten million awarded to a German firm.
At the moment, despite the large number of emissaries in Spain, the Germans are not so openly in charge of the country as they are of Italy. There the man in control is alleged to be Prince Otto von Bismarck, with Mussolini as the super-Quisling, German rule is maintained by a team of German advisers posted in all Italian ministries, with the assistance of between 8,000 and 15,000
Gestapo men attached to the Italian secret police and German garrisons in all towns Where discontent might be expected to show itself too openly. No such penetration has apparently taken place in unoccupied France, chiefly, it is to be supposed, because the ^pliable attitude of the Vichy Government makes such a step unnecessary, but it is clear that with the exceptions which are noted above the Germans in one way or another are in complete control of Europe, It is that control which has to be broken and anyone who thinks that the task will not prove a difficult one deludes himself.
Spain by arrangement with the British is able to avoid much of the suffering which is being inflicted upon the rest of Europe. Discontent in Italy is rife not only because of the dislike of the populace for this war, but also because large quantities of Italy foodstuffs are being sent into Germany with the result that prices have risen alarmingly in Italy and the cost of living increased far beyond what it would have been had Italian food supplies been left untouched. It is this question of food which must play an important part when this war comes to an end. There are in the world plenty of supplies with which to feed starving Europe, and they are already being mobilized for that pur po: Hitler having threatened that if he cannot win this war he will plunge Europe into chaotic destruction, the only means of thwarting him is to prepare ample quantities of food for the nations he is at present stai ing, and much needs to be made of the fact, in the shape of peace propaganda in the occupied countries, that the sooner peace comes the quicker will they again be adequately fed. That will undoubtedly stir them, when the time comes to rise and throw off the bonds which Hitler by force or fraud has fastened upon them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.