The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1935. BLACK DAYS IN EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 235, 4 October 1935, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1935. BLACK DAYS IN EUROPE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future ill the distance, And the good that ice can do.

This only can bo said in favour of Mussolini, that ho is a man of his word. He gave the world ample notice of his intention to embark on a, plundering campaign in j Ethiopia, and all the efforts to dissuade him have been wasted. Possibly they have served to delay the Italian advance a week or two, but it is equally possible that Mussolini launched the campaign as and when he wished. It remains to bo seen whether the League also is resolute, whether the Covenant is worth the paper it is written on, or whether the collective peace system is useless. This does not mean that the League's existence is at stake, because part of its work is to promote international co-operation in many fields, but its principal purpose, as the original signatories of the Covenant agreed, is "to achieve international peace and security" by, inter alia, "the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations. Italy was one of those who signed. Without a declaration of war Italy has sent troops and bombing 'planes over the Ethiopian border, and according to Ethiopian reports the casualties are already heavy. It was to be expected that they would be heavy, for by compai'ison with Italy Ethiopia is unarmed, and the Powers, at the behest of the League, have prevented her from obtaining such arms as might have been available to her. Thus, if the League takes no action now, it will not only have failed to protect a defenceless people, but will actually have made their plight worse than it might have been. What will the League Powers do ?

Recent reports from London and Paris do not give ground for the belief that Britain is likely to receive firm support from France, and as nobody would expect Britain to act alone tho prospect of effectual action appears slight. Tho report that economic sanctions will be imposed is curiously worded. If Mussolini' has given an assurance that the application of economic sanctions will not be regarded by him as an act of war he must be confident that such sanctions as are likely to be applied cannot harm Italy—which is to say that they will amount to no more than a harmless gesture of disapproval. There will bo a sigh of relief throughout the Empire at the report that Britain is unlikely to be involved in the conflict, and that it will be localised, but the relief will scarcely be understood by tho Ethiopians, who will feel that they have been betrayed by the League. Tlie relief felt in Britain and the Dominions can be only temporary, for if deliberate aggression in. Ethiopia goes unchecked and unpunished then a similar invasion in some corner of troubled Europe can be undertaken at any time, and the only defence against it is a further piling-up of armaments.