EUROPEAN PRESS COMMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 61, 23 December 1935, Page 5

EUROPEAN PRESS COMMENT.

STRENGTH OF BRITISH OPINION. ROME BEES A SACRIFICE. , / LONDON, Dee. 20. World comments on the crisis almost wholly pay a tribute to the strength of British public opinion and the dignified method of its expression, though the Rome newspaper, lopolo d’ltalia” ■ describes- Sir Samuel Hoare as sacrificed to the electoral mob. ... . The Paris paper, “Le Journal puts the tribute more gracefully, .saymg “The real victor of the day is Butish public opinion.” A large section of the French press finds Britain’s strong stand the occasion for criticising Signor Mussolini. “Petit Parisian” says that the failure of the plan was due primarily to the insufficient echo from Rome. “Figaro” says that not even among the hitherto most fervent admirers of Signor Mussolini is there a single Frenchman approving him and his painful harangue at Pontina. Nobody is yet disposed to discuss the next step after the week’s turmoil, though everywhere it is agreed that peace is more distant than ever, hut while some are inclined to thm - that Signor Mussolini has scored a tactical success in the postponement of the oil embargo, others point out that the lull on the battle front has. brought Italy correspondingly nearer the rainy season, which will halt opeiations in Abyssinia. If the peace plan has served no other purpose it has enabled the man in the street to see from the published maps showing the proposed territorial concession how little Italy has achieved militarily -on either , the north or the south front. Nobody has hitherto actually defined Italy’s probable answer to 01 sanctions. , - The Rome correspondent ol tie “Manchester Guardian” gives the official quarters’ view that it uould bring war nearer and emphasises it would not merely be a * question of conflict between Britain and Italy, but it would spread until it became Europe-wide, possibly world-wide Tims the League would become the creator of a struggle in which the League itself would be the first to he destroyed. , , w Italians think too much water has flowed beneath the bridge for an embargo on oil now to be possible.