ITALIAN AIMS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 124, 21 November 1935, Page 17

ITALIAN AIMS

A BASIS OF PEACE NEWS FROM AUSTRIAN SOURCE (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON. October 12. According to the Rome correspond ent of an Austrian newspaper, the "Vienna Reichspost," Italy would be glad to put an end to hostilities on certain conditions. Although this news comes in a roundabout way it may be the straw that shows which way the wind is blowing. The correspondent says that at the beginning Italy undoubtedly under, estimated the strength of British resistance. However, Great Britain has renounced one-sided measures, and has even shown moderation in the matter of military sanctions. The political fronts have thus been cleared, and ■this enables Rome "to weigh up what she wants and what she is ready to renounce, to consider the possibilities and the limits of success." It is already certain that the Abyssinian war is governed by political aims. It does not aim at the destruction of the foe, at the complete subjugation of Abyssinia, but at the acceleration of a final and peaceful understanding with the Emperor. Although the Italian Press avoids the subject while military operations are in progress, "everybody knows that at the end an understanding can be reached only within the framework of the League, an under* standing which will do justice to Italy's claim without gainsaying Abyssinian sovereignty as a member of the League, and her equal status in negotiation.** Thus it is self-evident that the military aims are limited by the political possibilities.

The political aims of Italy, according to the correspondent, ok "the cession of territory, the demarcation of tha frontiers, and settlement concessions, carrying exploitation rights." The Lake Tana zone "indisputably is reserved to the British," and the Addis Ababa highlands and the southern Kaffa zone represent the historically founded sovereign realm of the Abyssinian Emperor.

The conquest of Addis Ababa, the correspondent adds, is never mentioned in the Italian Press, and this may be regarded as "a sign bf early hopes of peace and of the localising of the conBict to Africa."