A VITAL SEA ARTERY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 10

A VITAL SEA ARTERY

On the occasion of the British Prime Minister’s interview with the Italian Ambassador at Downing- Street this week, it was reported that' Mr. Chamberlain had conveyed to Count Grandi his desire to restore the spirit of amity in which the Anglo-Italian Mediterranean Agreement was conceived. The interview indicates the significance of the description applied to a former Spanish Foreign Minister to the Mediterranean problem that it had become “the Gordian Knot of international politics.” The Anglo-Italian Agreement was signed in Rome on January 2 this year by the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ciano, and the British Ambassador, Sir Eric Drummond. It was described at the time by the Rome newspaper Giornale a Italia as “a voluntary and frank liquidation of a recent stormy past. It is what the English call a handshake after a controversy that is ended.” Under the agreement the two Powers disclaimed any desire to modify, or, so far as they were concerned, to see modified, the status quo as regards national sovereignty of territory in the Mediterranean area and undertook to respect each other’s rights and interests there. They also agreed to use their best endeavours to discourage any activities liable to impair the good relations which it was the object of the declaration then made to consolidate, and stated that it was designed to further the ends of peace and was not directed against any other Power. Since the World War, when a majority of the chief Powers interested in the Mediterranean were allies, the importance of that sea, while not overlooked, has not been forced on the public mind. The war was marked by events in the North Sea and the Channel which attracted much more attention. But when Signor Mussolini launched his campaign in Abyssinia, the tension between Great Britain and Italy, following the application of sanctions by the League of Nations, saw an almost unprecedented concentration of force in Mediterranean waters. The tension sas eased by .the agreement last January, but the fact that it was not “liquidated” altogether has been demonstrated- by the deterioration of the spirit of collaboration by the Powers concerned in the international agreement for NonIntervention in Spain. The main points in Britain’s command of the Mediterranean are Gibraltar, Malta, Suez and Aden. Even in the face of the complications in the western Mediterranean brought on by the Spanish war the centre of gravity of the whole has moved further east in recent years. Egypt, following the Italian conquest of Abyssinia, has agreed to the creation of a new British base at Alexandria. The port of Haifa, in Palestine, has also been strengthened in line with Britain’s policy of maintaining the security of one of the main arteries of her Imperial communications. Furthermore, as a recent French writer, General Maxime Weygand, points out, “the naval route is not the only factor that must be considered. Airways are assuming an evergrowing importance in strategy.” One British air-line, to India, passes through Haifa and Transjordania. The other, to the Cape, follows either the Red Sea or the Nile Valley.

France, also vitally concerned in the Mediterranean, is not, on the face of it, as well placed as Britain in the eastern zone. But she receives a certain guarantee of security there because of the entente cordiale and the inter-play of Anglo-French interests. The two Powers share Iraq oil. Completing the modern Gordian Knot is the vital importance to Britain of free transit in the Mediterranean for the movement of naval forces to the Singapore Base and Pacific stations in the event of complications arising from an outbreak of war in the Far Fast. From this point of view a friendly understanding with Italy is clearly desirable. Britain has no territorial aspirations in the Mediterranean. All she desires is that her trade and shipping interests should be unmolested, and that there should be no challenge to her right to free transit to the East, These requirements are fully met in the agreement of January last—if it was worth the.paper it was written on.