NO BASIS REACHED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 137, 6 December 1935, Page 9

NO BASIS REACHED

DUCE'S DEMANDS LESS RIGID

SIR SAMUEL HOAB-E'S APPEAL

Cnited Press Association—By Electric Tele-

graph—Copyright. (Received December 6, 1 p.m.)

LONDON, December 5,

The peace talks situation was authoritatively outlined to ithe "SunHerald" agency as follows: —

No Anglo-French agreement has so far been reached regarding a basis of negotiations for submission to Signor Mussolini. The British have conferred, directly neither with Italy nor with Abyssinia in the matter, the only direct approaches being those of M. Laval with the Italians. However, the British and French experts in Paris have brought the AngloFrench views considerably closer. In addition, it is disclosed for the first time that Signor Mussolini's demands are a trifle less rigid than when the Committee of Five presented its original peace terms.

Real interest tonight centres on the immediate future, to which Sir Samuel Hoare gave a guarded but significant pointer, in the House of Commons th:s afternoon, when1 in a strikingly friend' ly tone, he declared: "We don't wish to humiliate or weaken Italy. Indeed, we are anxious to see a strong Italy in the world morally, politically, and socially. We don't wish to weaken Signor Mussolini's own position or to destroy the Fascist regime."

The "Sun-Herald" agency understands that behind this appeal to Signor Mussolini is the hope that, if not before Christmas, certainly early in the New Year, a settlement may be achieved.