The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, MAY 18, 1936. ITALY'S "EMPIRE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 116, 18 May 1936, Page 6

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

MONDAY, MAY 18, 1936. ITALY'S "EMPIRE."

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

The actions of the Italian Government since the collapse of the Ethiopian resistance provide an illustration of the speed with which a dictatorship can work. Italian troops entered Addis Ababa on May 6, and on May 9 Signor Mussolini proclaimed Italian sovereignty, "full and entire," over the whole of* Ethiopia. His decrees were confirmed on Saturday by- the Senate, and simultaneously it was announced that a preliminary expenditure of £1,600,000 has been authorised for the development of the new "empire." Thus within a fortnight the possession of an African territory larger than France and Belgium has been transferred to a European Power, and the atlas-makers, who have had a great deal of work to do since the war, once again find some of their productions out of date.

Signor Mussolini's haste is easily understood. While the League ponders the new situation, and its members wonder what, if anything, can and should be done, he is intent Upon the task of confronting it and the world with the accomplished fact not merely of Ethiopia conquered by a military force, but a colony in which development has already begun. He has asserted again and again that fruitful colonies are essential to Italy's continued existence, and now, having conquered a territory in violation of the Covenant and of specific treaties, he wishes to justify his assertions and his actions by a demonstration of Italy's ability as a coloniser.

4 What wealth will Italy find or produce in Ethiopia? There is much opinion to the effect that the mineral deposits are neither important nor easily accessible. Cotton anfl coffee are i among the proposals for development, but of these staples the world has a surplus, and if Italy proposes to grow them for her own use the obvious comment is that she has gone to enormous expense to obtain land for growing materials which are easily purchasable at a cheap price. The prospects for colonisation, unless it is to be induced by compulsion at home, are also unimpressive. It was recently shown that in Eritrea, after 50 years' occupation by Italy, there are, in the 2000 square miles suitable for colonisation, only about 400 adult unofficial settlers, and of these only 84 are engaged in agriculture. "Italy might plant some farmers on the arable land of Ethiopia, where conditions are most suitable for living," remarked an American writer, "but the average Italian, if he had to leave Italy, would a thousand times rather be in the fruit business in Chicago." These arguments, of ; course, ignore the idea of prestige, with which there is much reason to belieive Signor Miissolini is obsessed. Eor him'it is sufficient to declare that "Italy, at last, has her Empire . . . which the people have created with their blood." But the price was not paid off in ■blood; it -has yet to be paid by the industries and the people of Italy, in years when the glamour and excitement of these last weeks will have been forgotten.