DIRECT VIOLATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 83, 10 April 1939, Page 7

DIRECT VIOLATION

TREATY OBLIGATIONS

LONDON PRESS COMMENT

(Independent Cable Service.)

LONDON, April 9.

' Commenting on the invasion of Albania, the "Sunday Times" says that the Italian action is a direct violation of treaty obligations.

"The maintenance of Greek and Turkish independence is most urgent," says the paper. "Both are greatly perturbed over the invasion of Albania and the concentration of troops in the Dodecanese Islands. Responsible quarters express the opinion that an attack on Greece would bring immediate aid from Britain."

"The Times," in a leader yesterday, said: "The Italian operations in Albania will doubtless rank in text-books as a model of totalitarian strategy. The surprise choice of Good Friday was doubtless a cynical element in the plan of concealment, while the Italians outnumber the Albanians 40 to one. It remains to be seen how Nazi and Fascist ingenuity will reconcile the invasion with the Italo-Albanian treaty. Most of the capitals of Europe consider the Duce's stroke to be part of a concerted Italian and German reply to the non-aggressive Powers' move towards consolidation. Britain has a peculiar right to examine the intentions of a move which threatens to disturb the stability of the Mediterranean."

The "Daily Express" says: "Keep the thing in its true proportion. Do not let the violence of the deed lead to alarmist views. This does not constitute a disturbance of the general peace of the world. Since 1927 Italy has been nominally the ally but actually the suzerain of Albania. To Yugoslavia the invasion must bring acute anxieties, but there are two things to say: First, that Yugoslavia belongs to the German economic orbit already, and, secondly, that the Italian aim to convert Albania into a Roman bastion may not be so easy to realise in practice."