South Africa's fighting Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts smelled Axis trouble in Madagascar last week which only increased the stench of his Axis trouble at home. From the lazy island of Madagascar the Axis might not only control the western Indian Ocean, but also attack the minerally rich Union of South Africa, only 800 miles away. Last week Prime Minister Smuts heard that Pierre Laval's rise to power in Vichy had been followed by a reign of terror in Madagascar, in which hundreds of Free French sympathizers were arrested. Prime Minister Smuts thereupon broke relations with Vichy, saying ''we...
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