VITAL INTEREST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 9

VITAL INTEREST

USE OF MEDITERRANEAN

BRITAIN AND ITALY ACCORD SIGNED (British Official \\!-Vss.) (Received January 4, a.m.) RUGBY, January 3. The following is the text of a declaration signed in Home on Saturday by the Italian Foreign-Minister and the British Ambassador:— ''His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and Ihe Italian Government, animated by a desire to contribute increasingly, in the interests of the general cause of peace and security, to a betterment of relations between them and between all the Mediterranean Powers, and being resolved to respect the rights and interests of those Powers, recognise that freedom of entry into, exit from, and transit through the Mediterranean is of vital interest both to the different parts of the British Empire and to Italy, and that these interests are in no way inconsistent with each other. They disclaim any desire to modify, or so far as they are concerned to see modified, the status quo as regards the national sovereignty of territory in the Mediterranean. They undertake to respect each other's rights and interests in the said area, i They agree to use their best endeavours to discourage any activities liable to impair good relations, which it is the object of the present declaration to consolidate. This declaration is designed to further the ends of peace, and it is not directed against any other Power."' WELCOMED IN EUROPE. According to news reports reaching London, the announcement of the signature of the declaration has been welcomed in all parts of Europe. The French Foreign Minister, to whom the substance of the agreement was communicated yesterday through the British Embassy in Paris, later made a public statement in which he expressed the delight of the French Government, and associated it with the effort for conciliation and peace embodied in the declaration.

FINAL HANDSHAKE

CONTROVERSY ENDED "SOMETHING WORTH-WHILE" ROME, January 2. The British Ambassador to Rome, Sir Eric Drummond, and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Ciano signed the British-Italian Mediterranean accord at noon. Sir Eric Drummond subsequently stated that it accomplished something worth-while for peace and conciliation. Britain and Italy now had no differences in the Mediterranean. Signor Virginio Gayda, director of the "Giornale d'ltalia," declares that the British-Italian agreement is a voluntary and frank liquidation of the stormy past. It is a handshake after controversy and calms all British anxieties regarding the Mediterranean, expresses Britain's recognition of Italy's new imperial position, and does not affect Italo-German collaboration, which remains the final chord in Italian policy. The agreement is not aimed against any Power, but reaffirms the intangibility of the British and Italian positions in the international field.

FRENCH SATISFACTION

(Received Jauuary 4, 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, January 3. The Foreign Minister, M. Delbos, expressed the Government's satisfaction at the result of the Anglo-Italian negotiations, of which Cabinet was kept fully informed by the British Government.