ANGLO-ITALIAN ACCORD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21970, 19 December 1936, Page 15

ANGLO-ITALIAN ACCORD

MEDITERRANEAN POLICY NEGOTIATIONS AT FAVOURABLE STAGE (BEITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received December 18, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, December 17. The "Daily Telegraph" commenting on the remarks of the Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden) on the Italian assurances about the Balearic Islands says: "The moment for Mr Eden's statement is well timed, because Sir Eric Drummond, British Ambassador at Rome, and Count Gallazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister, have reached what is believed to be a very favourable point in their negotiations for a general Anglo-Italian accord on Mediterranean policy on the existing basis, which is also earnestly desired by the smaller powers in the eastern waters of that sea." [Asked in the House of Commons the precise terms of the guarantee given by the Italian Government about the Balearic Islands, Mr Eden said that these assurances were verbal. His Majesty's Charge d'Affaires in Rome (Mr E. M. B. Ingram) had informed Count Ciano on September 12 that any alteration of the status quo in the western Mediterranean would be a matter of the closest concern to his Maiesty's Government. Count Ciano had assured Mr Ingram that the Italian Government had not either before or since the revolution in Spain engaged in any negotiations with General Franco by which the status quo in the western Mediterranean would be altered, nor would it engage in any such negotiations in the future.]