NEGATIVE & UNHELPFUL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 88, 11 October 1937, Page 9

NEGATIVE & UNHELPFUL

ITALY'S PROPOSAL

REGRET IN LONDON

CONSIDERATION OF FURTHER

STEP

(British Official Wireless.) (Received October. 11,10.40 a.m.) RUGBY, October 10. Until the British Government has had an opportunity to study the Italian Note and exchange ideas with France, nothing like an official opinion will be obtainable, but there is little doubt, from what is known of the British standpoint, that the Italian reply will cause disappointment and regret in London. The Italian rejoinder that the questions proposed for discussion should be referred back to procedure, the obvious failure of which was the very reason of the suggestion for an effort along fresh 1 lines, is bound to be considered by Britain as completely negative and unhelpful. British consideration of the Italian Note will enter a more active phase, including probably consultations with France, with the Foreign Secretary's return from Balmoral to the Foreign Office. In the meantime only semiofficial and unofficial comment on the Note is obtainable. WAY FOR ALTERNATIVES. The Anglo-French proposal involved no hard and fast procedure for conversations between the three Governments, and if an actual conference between the representatives of the three Powers seemed unsuitable to Italy the way was left open for alternative methods of exchanging views. Italy objects to the failure to include Germany in the conversations. Neither Britain nor France could have any reason for excluding Germany except the obvious one that Germany's inclusion would necessitate the inclusion of other Power 3, including Russia, with the result that the new procedure would have tended to become as dilatory and .difficult as the old. It would have been [perfectly easy and proper for Italy to j keep Germany fully and continuously informed regarding the progress of the i conversations. The Italian Note claims that Italy and Germany took the first initiative in the matter of non-Spanish participants in the civil war, but newspaper commentators recall that the question was raised by them at a time when it concerned only a trickle of genuine volunteers to both sides, and before it had become a most serious aspect of foreign intervention. I United Press Association—By Electric Te!«* Sr*pb—Copyright LONDON, October 10. Diplomatic circles in London regret Italy's refusal, pointing out that Britain and France are willing to meet to the utmost her wishes regarding the form of the conversations, and also emphasising, in regard to the Italian objection that Germany was not invited, that Germany is not a Mediterranean Power. Moreover, if she were invited, others, notably Russia and Portugal, might desire inclusion, resulting in a personnel varying littlt: from that of the Non-intervention Committee.