PEACE TERMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 299, 18 December 1935, Page 17

PEACE TERMS.

LEAGUE AND ITALY. AUSTRALIAN INDIGNATION. JTrSTICE AND SECURITY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 13. People here with first-hand knowledge of Abyssinia are inclined to the view that so far as the projected conquest of that country is concerned, Italy seems already to have lost the war. The Italian armies have advanced very slowly, their worst difficulties are still to be overcome, and far more than the mountainous country and the hordes of ..patriotic warriors whom tliey will have to face, they may dread drought and disease and the death that these implacable enemies bring in their train. And a great many people here, to judge by what they say and write, apparently have little sympathy to spare for the Italians and their misfortunes.

It is true that there are some people who think differently. Dr. Moran, one of our leading medical men, who has been lately to Italy, has contributed to one of our weeklies two letters in which lie dwells at length on the line qualities of the Italians, points to their national needs in regard to colonies and raw materials, and endea-vours to bespeak Australian sympathy for them in their difficulties.

Of course it has been maintained repeatedly in our newspapers that official pleading of this kind is wholls irrelevant to the real issue. Italy, a member of the League of Nations, having been largely instrumental in introducing Abyssinia into the League, has broken her pledges, repudiated the Covenant, defied the League and attacked one of its members. The question simply is whether the other members of the League are prepared to ignore all this. Question of Sanctions. Dr. Moran asks us how we think a proud and high-spirited nation like the Italians can submit to sanctions. That is a matter for the Italians themselves to decide. But it is obvious that unless Britain and France and the other members of the League do not wish to be indicted at the bar of history as false to their oaths and pledges, they must impose sanctions on Italy, according to the precise terms of the Covenant. iThe Italians may be personally as admirable as Dr. Moran believes, but . that would not absolve Britain or France for failing to enforce the Covenant against them on behalf of a weaker member of the League. It has also been pointed out to Dr. Moran and other pro-Italians that unless the League acts in this flagrant instance of a breach of the Covenant, the dream "of "collective security'' must vanish at once, the League itself must collapse and all the smaller States, like Australia, may expect in due time to fall a prey to some unscrupulous aggressor, like Italy, which is prepared to take the risks of war rather than be baulked in the satisfaction of its ruthless ambitions. This represents, as nearly as I can gauge it, the general tone of public feeling here in regard to the war. No one who reads our newspapers can doubtthat the hostility toward Italy ' was intensified recently by the news of the aerial bombardment of undefended and indefensible villages, with the accompanying slaughter of women and children and the alleged "atrocious and cruel" destruction of Red Cv6ss stations and hospitals. When it seemed ■likely that the principal members of the League would agree to enforce the sanction on oil, there was a general sense of relief at the prospect that Italy would now be compelled to realise her isolation and the hopelessness of her position; and an article in the "Sun" —"Will Italy Make Peace interpreted these latest developments in terms which suggested that with a great many people here the wish was father to the .thought. Outburst of Indignation. Under these conditions it is easy to understand that the news of the latest proposals submitted by Britain and France to Italy has caused a very strong outburst of indignation here. It is true that the "Sydney Morning Herald" — true to its permanent conviction that Britain, or at least a British Government, can do no Wong—deprecated the suggestion that ( tlie ■ terms meant that the Emperor of Abyssinia would lose half his territory or that the effect.of such a settlement would be that "the aggressor would profit by his aggicssion." But for the credit of Australia, I belieye—and there is much evidence to support this lielief —that p lir _ people regard the latest proposals with indignation and shame*. A "Sun" editorial, entitled "Peace on Earth," after commenting upon the edifying spectacle lately provided by the League of Nations when it decided to "take the part of the weak against the strcmg," ventures to express a chastened regret that the loading members of the League, having done violence to Mussolini's self-esteem by announcing the sanctions policy, "are not now disposed to be harsh with him.' He demanded two-thirds of the realm of Hailfr Silassie, and now, because he was the aggressor, he was politely requested to be content with only a half. Civilisation's Blessings. I Of course, the "Sun" does not expect the Abyssinian Emperor to accept such a settlement cheerfully. It may be pointed out, it says, that the little fellow "is ruling over alien people, that his subjects are addicted to slavery and eating their meat raw, that most of the inhabitants of Abyssinia are of the wrong colour," and that they are generally out of touch with that higher cul-] ture which expresses itself so nobly in "Futuristic art, jazz, i Hollywood, phosgene gas and other blessings common to civilised man." The "Sun" admits that a great many people ' "are voicing the higher * justice, and' pointing out that even the most unpleasant raw meat eating savages have their rights," but the writer remarks that apparently "Europe is so anxious to get rid of an extremely dangerous state of tension that abstract justice, and even collective security, have become a little obscured." It would be difficult to sum up the whole declared policy of the League of Nations more tersely and effectively than under those two heads; abstract, justice,on the one hand, collective secu-1 rity on the other. Australians as a I people have little training in the nice- - ties of diplomatic logic, but they have any amount of common sense, and they will not be slow to decide for themselves, if this atrocious settlement is actually agreed upon, how completely and how tragically the League of Nations- has Jailed,