Dividing Up the World

It was by no means certain last week that Adolf Hitler would conquer Great Britain before winter, or even that he would try. The Empire was more vulnerable. For the defense of the Isles Britain had drawn on the Empire's defenses; her life line was weak in many places. On one weak place, Egypt, Hitler's Axis partner was whittling already (see p. 27). Others looked equally tempting: Africa, land of gold and diamonds; the Near East, land of oil; even India, the Empire's slightly tarnished jewel (see p. 32).

First in Berlin and then in Rome, Axis policy took shape. Its precise contours were draped in more than usual secrecy, but the outlines showed through. Spain's Minister of Government and Falangist Party Leader Ramon Serrano Suner, in Berlin on a visit, had several long talks with Germany's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, then one long one with Adolf Hitler. Next day Herr von Ribbentrop left for Rome.

Don Ramon had evidently told his German friends just how much of a war Spain could fight to get the spoils she covets: Gibraltar, French Morocco, Oran. Day after day, while Herr von Ribbentrop was gone, he frittered away his time, going to Brussels for a sight-seeing trip through German-occupied territory, twiddling his thumbs in Berlin. While German newspapers pointedly referred to Spain as the third member of the Axis and third power in Hitler's Europe, Don Ramon waited impatiently to hear what had passed between Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Italian friends.

No Hurry. The German Foreign Minister arrived in Rome aboard an armored train with anti-aircraft guns mounted fore & aft. Crowds obediently cheered him at the station and Italy's Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano was there to greet him. The two Foreign Ministers went into a huddle from which both emerged all smiles, like a Walrus and a Carpenter about to make a good meal.

Next day Herr von Ribbentrop spent two hours with Benito Mussolini. Foreign correspondents, of the U. S. and of all those little nations which may be swallowed like oysters, buttonholed their Foreign Office friends, got only mysterious shakes of the head. Equally mysterious were the newspapers. Virginio Gayda's Giornale d'ltalia struck the true Walrus-&-Carpenter note in an editorial headlined No Hurry. "There is no necessity to tell all at this moment," wrote Mouthpiece Gayda.

Walrus von Ribbentrop postponed his return to Berlin, spent a whole day ostentatiously sight-seeing with Carpenter Ciano. They lunched at the country club (which used to be a British hangout), lingered in long conversation over coffee.

Back at his hotel, the Walrus talked to Adolf Hitler on the telephone. Next day he saw II Duce again, paid him a third visit before winding up his four-day mission and leaving for Berlin, where Don Ramon Serrano Suner was still waiting to learn what Spain must do to earn her place in Hitler's brave new world.

War of Continents. That Adolf Hitler now thinks the war may last many years, even if Britain is conquered, and may involve every nation including Russia, Japan and the U. S., became pretty clear as news of the conversations leaked out. No doubt Rome and Berlin were not above trying to throw a scare into the world by making their plans sound vague and big, but there was also little doubt that those plans took into account far-flung moves and their consequences. Discussed were:

> The conquest of Britain, either this year or later. That is Germany's job.

> The conquest of Egypt and Palestine. That is Italy's job.

> Conquest of the Mediterranean. This would involve seizure of Gibraltar, either by Spain or by German troops operating through Spain. To bar Britain from a land base Portugal would be forced to join the Axis or submit to occupation.

> Stabilization of the Balkans, including satisfaction of Italy's claims against Greece (TIME, Aug. 26), and probably a division of Yugoslavia to give Italy the Dalmatian coast -- unless Germany was insisting on an Adriatic outlet. Axis stabilization means Axis domination, and Hitler's Walrus and Mussolini's Carpenter had no oysters to spare for Joseph Stalin. That was one reason for the secrecy that clothed last week's conversations.

> With the Balkans under Axis control and with II Duce's legions east of Suez, Turkey would be threatened from two sides. Turkey would then be given the choice of going along with the Axis or joining Russia to keep the Axis out of the Near East--something Joseph V. Stalin would probably be vastly unwilling to try. In the Near East are Syria, Iran, Iraq and Saudi-Arabia, wide open to conquest and with the rich supplies of oil the Axis needs to fight a long, big war.

> Africa, the Walrus and the Carpenter decided last week, "has the same relationship to Europe that South America has to the United States." The Axis idea of how to treat their South America was to divide it up among themselves, perhaps tossing a few crumbs to an Axis-dominated France. Drawing their new map of the continent, Foreign Ministers Ciano and von Ribbentrop awarded North Africa to Italy (with bits for Spain and France), Central Africa to Germany. In the south, they agreed, Germany would recover lost German South-West Africa and the rest of the Union of South Africa would be left free to make its own choice. The joker in that was that before the choice was made the Axis might impose on South Africa somebody like onetime Premier James Barry Munnik Hertzog, who never wanted to fight Germany in the first place.

> With Europe, the Near East and Africa under control, the Axis would have the economic resources necessary to fight any kind of war, including a trade war with the U. S. That the U. S. was not left out of the Rome discussions was made plain by the Italian press which chorused a warning to leave the Eastern Hemisphere alone.

> But Axis dreams were not yet Axis realities. Between Hitler and Mussolini and their conquests still lie thousands of miles of defended desert. There is also the Mediterranean water in which the British Fleet still floats. That Britain will fight for Africa as well as for her homeland was made plain in Egypt and at Dakar this week (see p. 24). And the big lame bear, Russia, eying the Balkans and the Dardanelles, was beginning to feel as snubbed by the Axis as she had once felt snubbed by the Allies. As Don Ramon Serrano Suner started for Rome the world wondered whether inclusion of Spain in the Rome-Berlin Axis meant the approaching end of the Berlin-Moscow Axis.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.