HELP FOR ITALY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 128, 24 February 1938, Page 11

HELP FOR ITALY

Board Of Tradp Ready To Grant Credits BACKED BY EXPORTS £5,000,000 Advance As A Beginning Bj’ Telegraph.—Press Assu. —Copyright. London, February 22. The Board of Trade is prepared for an agreement whereby Italy will be granted substantial British credits, beginning witli an advance of £5,000,000,. th is to take the form • of a guarantee backed by exports, the Credits Guarantee Department indemnifying British exporters against loss, states the political correspondent of the "Star.” ■ According to a Rome message, the British Ambassador, Lord Perth, is going to London on February 23 to see Mr. Chamberlain. Dominions to Hear New Policy. The Australian Associated Press agency says that one of Mr. Chamberlain’s first tasks will be to outline the Government’s now policy to the Dominions and that lie will convene a meeting of the High Commissioners later in the weeki

LADY CHAMBERLAIN Visit To Italy Purely Private Rome, February 22. Lady Chamberlain, wife of the late Sir Austen Chamberlain, denies a suggestion in a section of the English Press that she is a sort of unofficial Ambassadoress in Italy and states that her visit to Italy is private. Signor Mussolini, she states, is an old friend of herself and Sir Austen, and they had frequently visited him. Both knew Count Ciano long before he became Foreign Minister. (There had been a suggestion that her reports had influenced her brother-in-law, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, and that she was conveying Signor Mussolini’s desire for a restoration of friendship to England.) No anti-British matter has been broadcast from the Bari radio station in the past two or three days.

Mr. Herbert Morrison, in winding up the Labour Party’s contribution to the House of Commons debate, following Mr. Eden’s resignation, said that if any unofficial third party was intervening between the representatives of Britain and a foreign Power the Commons had the right to know whether this was the first occasion on which such a thing had occurred, and whether this unofficial person was located in London or in Rome, and whether it was a man or a woman, states a London message. FEARS EFFACED - London Stock Exchange Recovers London. February 22. • The city editor of "The Times” says that the overnight debate in the House of Commons,' combined with second thoughts, effaced Monday’s fears regarding the shakiness of th.e Government and also indicated that there is a prospect of an improvement in the European situation. The stock markets resumed at the level of Friday’s recovery, restored Monday’s losses, added a few pence over, and closed at the highest level of the day, although there was no great increase In business. The Improvement extended to gilt-edged securities and industrial and international commodity shares. An earlier message stated: Fortunately, the firmness of Wall Street prevented the Cabinet crisis seriously affecting the markets, but the nervousness and perplexity which caused giltedged securities to waver indicates another uninspiring account. City opinion is sharply divided, but all dread a general election, and therefore a majority of the business men in tile city are probably prepared to stand by the Prime Minister, right or wrong.