SOCIALIST ITALY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12750, 4 January 1936, Page 12

SOCIALIST ITALY

REFUSES TO BACK AGGRESSIVE WAR. BRUSSELS, Nov. 25. Democratic find Socialist. Italy crjjj ing itself “The Italy of To-morroVi —lias “solemnly proclaimed that, it will not recognise any debt, contracted hy Premier Mussolini for the pursuit of an abominable war,” according to the Executive of the Labor and Socialist. International here.

In a unanimous resolution passed by the executive, every party affiliated to the Labor and Socialist International is enjoined to use all the political means at its disposal to secure that no financial assistance is given to the "Fascist, crime” and to “terminate the scandal ' constituted by the unhindered supply of the aggressor with arms and munitions of every kind, whereas the state attacked is denied the most elementary means of defence.” The International also calls on the government to fulfil their duty ns members of the League of Nations, They suggest three steps: First, ffcja closing, if necessary, of the Suez Canal to Italian war transports; secondly, lmna fide arbitration “which would not he derisory as is the case with the present arbitration proceedings’’which do not. oven permit any investigations as to whether Ual Ual is on is not within Ethiopia—a full member of the. League—“in any event”, and the unconditional rejection of its partition into spheres of influence for the Great Powers or into a protectorate by a Great Power “even when! they are given the appearnneo of economic and administrative conces-

sions.” The Executive of the International further declares it. has already contacted the International Federation of Trade Unions to seek common means hy which the workers of the world may offer effective opposition to war. “But,” the resolution adds, “if war should nevertheless break out, tlia International express the hope on behalf of the workers of all countries that the workers of Italy will succeed in taking advantage of tlie convulsions caused hy the war in order, to defeat, the real enemy of the Italian people—which is not at Addis* Ababa but in Romo.”

Finally, the International “solemnly draws the attention of the workers and of all friends of peaco to the severe convulsions which ho caused in Europo hy Italian whi* on Ethiopia and failure of the League “inter alia because of tlio encouragement which this would give to Hitlerite Germany.”