ARAB ADVICE TO ITALY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 21, 19 October 1938, Page 5

ARAB ADVICE TO ITALY

'‘Promises Not Enough”

BRITAIN’S RECORD

Italian racial policy is being followed with close attention by the Arab Press in Tunisia.

The Arab daily newspaper "Zohra,” published at Tunis, in an article headed “The European Democratic Front and the Mohammedan World,” spoke recently of tlfe struggle between the dictatorships and the democracies for the friendship of the 'Arab peoples. ft was the Mediterranean basin Itself, the newspaper declared, that was at stake in that propagandist war. Arabic was used by European broadcasting stations;'ltaly claimed to have built mosques and schools. And her promises were boundless. "Nevertheless (the article adds) the Italians ought to allow the Libyans and the Abyssinians to speak. The dictatorships do not matter to us. In the past we had no links with them. We have none now; and we shall have none in the future. The fate of the democracies concerns us; with them we have political relations that we want to see strengthened. Our loyalty and frankness compel us to tell the whole truth to these Powers, and not to hide from them the path they ought to follow in their counter-propaganda. We advise them to rely upon action rather than on words or promises, no matter how sincere; because a realist policy appeals more closely to the heart and Is best designed to check the enemy. What can Italy say to what England has done for the Egyptians and Iraqis and France for the Syrians? Can she compare herself to these Powers by talking of her activities in Abyssinia and Libya?” The article in "Zulira” concludes by asking statesmen and politicians to treasure the vitality of Arab and Mohammedan peoples, “who want to walk hand-in-hand only with the Powers that carry the banner of democracy.”