INVITED POWERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 59, 7 September 1937, Page 11

INVITED POWERS

REASONS ASCRIBED

CAN ITALY STAND ALOOF?

LONDON, September 6. The diplomatic correspondent of "The Times" says that Italy and her five Mediterranean neighbours have been invited to the conference owing

to their geographical and strategic positions, and also because they signed the submarine convention* in 1936. By this they promised that submarines would conform to the rules : governing surface vessels and especially would not sink or damage merchantmen without ensuring the safety of the passengers and crew, which code the Mediterranean pirates have flouted. , The Black Sea Powers have been invited because the Dardanelles is their threshold to the Mediterranean and their main or sole highway.

Germany has : been invited : for many reasons, including her earlier participation in the control scheme, and also because she has been a victim of Mediterranean lawlessness.

A Paris message says that the extension of the conference to double i the number of countries which France originally proposed lessens in French opinion its chances of success.

The Rome correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says that Signor Mussolini will undoubtedly accept tha invitation, despite Italian .criticism over the inclusion of Russia owing to the allegation that she is aiding the Spanish Government. Italy could not stand aloof from a meeting regarding the sea in which she claims to be dominant