Old Custom

There were no busier men in Europe last week than the commanders of the various Armies, Navies and Air Forces (see pp. 22 and 23). The generals were mobilizing their soldiers, dispatching divisions along frontiers. The Air Force heads prepared to fight that war in the air which they have long stressed. But it was the admirals who made the most spectacular moves in Europe's frenzied preparations for another conflict.

The powerful Mediterranean Fleet of Great Britain concentrated at Malta and Alexandria, prepared to defend Greece, Egypt, Palestine, the Dardanelles, the Suez Canal from a quick Italian naval thrust. Meanwhile part of the French Mediterranean Fleet, with three admirals aboard, suddenly turned up at Gibraltar. It was prepared not only to do its part in keeping the British-owned "Rock" from suddenly falling into the hands of an Italian-Spanish-German force but to help protect the International Zone of Tangier from quick invasion of 90,000 troops reported massed in Spanish Morocco.

Spanish and German newspaper editorials hinted that Gibraltar might soon be Spanish, and there were reports of continued concentrations of Italian and Spanish troops in nearby Spanish ports. The British made haste to strengthen the fortifications of their two-and-a-half-square-mile possession at the Mediterranean's western gates.

Most sensational of all naval moves, however, was Germany's decision to send 40 ships (two pocket battleships, two cruisers, six destroyers, 15 submarines, auxiliary craft) early this week to "maneuver" off the Spanish Coast. The fleet, it was announced, would visit Lisbon, Vigo, Cadiz, Tangier and Spanish Mediterranean ports. Generalissimo Francisco Franco announced that, as admiral of Spain's Navy, he would attend the maneuvers aboard the German flagship.

To suggestions that the Spanish coast was an odd spot for German cruising, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry replied that a maneuver off Spain was merely a resumption of an old German naval custom. Others were skeptical. During most of the World War a big part of the German fleet was bottled up at home. Since then German naval literature has held that more of the fleet should instead have been scattered for raiding British and French sea commerce. Germany's two pocket battleships have never been considered good for fleet action, since their armor is too thin. Because of their speed, however, they would be excellent raiders. They could be run down and sunk only by big new battle cruisers.

The fact that so many of the ships going on the jaunt were submarines suggested that the German cruise did not constitute the usual type of maneuvers. Obvious suspicion was that the German Fleet was going out to raid, to help the Italian Fleet in a Mediterranean showdown, or both.

Whatever the German naval intentions, one thing was certain: British and French warships would at a courteous distance try to observe such games as the Reich Navy might play.

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