ONLY ONE WAY-WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 42, 17 August 1935, Page 9

ONLY ONE WAY-WAR

COFVTCTIOF IF HOMEUNLIKELY TO YIELD LONDON, August 16. ' The Rome correspondent of "The Times" says:— :■/ ■■ •■ ~ "The .general conviction is that -ihc Paris negotiations will not bring, the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia an inch nearer the solution desired by Italy." ..'■.. . •' Italy's expansionist plans in East Africa, it is held, can only be fulfilled by military operations. Italy hopes to \ prove at Paris that her claims and grievances against Abyssinia are sound and fully justify the action she intends to take once and for all regarding the Abyssinian 'question. She hopes to convince France and Great Britain that existing treaties do not prevent her securing by her own means . rights given her in previous agreements, but,whether her viewpoint will be' accepted or not, Italy is unlikely to retreat from the position she has taken up. BRITAIN'S GUARDIANSHIP. The Paris correspondent of "The Times" says that the Three-Power negotiations are: expected to be difficult in the extreme. The British delegates will do their utmost to smooth the path of conciliation by every means in their power.' They will keep before them the fundamental principles of peace and fair dealing between nations, and will neglect no opportunity to put forward any suggestion giving satisfaction to Italy and Abyssinia alike. They recognise • that something more than purely economic concessions will be needed to effect a settlement. They may approve plans for a settlement provided the independence of Abyssinia is maintained, but they will not

be parties to any attempt to exert pressure on Abyssinia to accept "a z-eady-mpde settlement" without the opportunity of discussing it fully with the Jiurcpean Powers concerned. The essential basis of the British attitude is that the Italian conquest of Abyssinia by force of arms involving wilful disregard of several treaties and ruthless aggression by one League member upon another cannot be approved in any circumstances, and must, if undertaken, set in motion the procedure laid down by the League Covenant.