"MINERAL SANCTION"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 97, 21 October 1935, Page 3

"MINERAL SANCTION"

ACTION AGAINST ITALY

A "mineral sanction" against the aggressor nation in the Italian-Abys-sinian dispute was suggested recently by Sir Thomas H. Holland, a former president of the British Association, says the "Manchester Guardian." "It would be a very easy matter to 'prevent war between Italy and Abyssinia by invoking a mineral sanction to which all the signatories of the Kellogg Pact, and all other Powers, would need to subscribe for it to be successful," said Sir Thomas. He continued: "Article 1G of the League of Nations Covenant is' unworkable, and an embargo on arms would be discriminatory in favour of Italy as an industrial country. ' The only workable solution is the application of a simple sanction withholding air minerals from an aggressor nation. ITALY'S NEEDS. j "In the present crisis it would be! invaluable. Italy is short of nearly a dozen minerals she would require in time of war and which she would have to import from other countries. She would require coal, manganese, tungsten, tin, mica, iron ore, and petroleum, to name some of the products she either does not possess or is very short of. Abyssinia is not an industrial country, and she would be crippled in any case. "The prospect of smuggling is'thin, unlike that of smuggling arms, for an aggressor would require large quantities of the minerals to keep her industries alive in addition to her munitions needs. "The fairness of the sanction for all, countries is made clear by the fact j that no country in the world is selfcontained so far as minerals for the manufacture of munitions are concerned. No country dare run the risk of war without them." In his book, "The Mineral Sanction j as an Aid to International Security," Sir Thomas Holland says the use of iron and steel, vitally necessary for war purposes, involves alloy metals, such as nickel, manganese, cobalt, chromium tungsten, vanadium, and molybdenum. Without them the metal-1 lurgy of iron for war would not be possible. Other essentials are copper,! zinc, aluminium, antimony, lead, tin, j and quicksilver, and such non-metals as graphite, fluorspar, petroleum, mica, magnesite, and sulphur. i