ITALY'S POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 13

ITALY'S POSITION

STOCKED UP FOR WAR

Economic penalties that the League Tl of Nations may vote against Italy for violation of the Covenant will be met by the nation, Premier Mussolini has announced, with discipline and frugal- c ity (says the "New York Times"), s These devices Italy has become used 1 to. For a generation she has seldom c known a year with a favourable bal- c ance of trade. She imports more than j she exports, malting up the balance i with "invisible" exports such as re- i mittances from her nationals abroad \ and from tourist expenditures, which j average about 1,000,000,000 lire annually. j For withstanding embargoes against ( her imports and exports she has, it is reported in news cables, at least pro- _ vided herself with materials sufficient : for her expedition in Ethiopia if it , ends, as she expects, before the next ' season of rains. For six months she ' lias been buying American metals, chemicals, scrap iron, cotton, and other munition commodities to an extent exceeded, according to Department of ' Commerce reports, only by Japan and ' Great Britain. Highly industrialised as she has be- ! come, Italy has to purchase abroad cer- [ tain essential raw materials. She is ' notoriously poor in iron and coal, but ! produces in insufficient quantity these and steel ingots, rolled steel, smelter ' lead and zinc, and bauxite. She is 1 completely dependent on other coun--5 tries for chrome-ore, mica, nickel, plat--1 mum, rubber, tin, and tungsten. She 1 relies almost wholly on imports for 5 copper, cotton, manganese, wool, and 1 petroleum. i Italy imports a fifth of her food. - "If effectively enforced," an embargo cj by League States of food imports, and ' a I imports of the raw materials in which ! sj ?. highly industrialised Slatr. is c'.cfi- j I ! cient. would in course of lime prove) I serious, especially, the British Royal In-1 stitute' of International Affairs points n out, to a State, "which might be imt, pervious to the pressure of less comprehensive embargoes."