ITALY ARMED

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 147, 6 June 1936, Page 5

ITALY ARMED

Military Machine Ready for Action GERMAN FRIENDSHIP LONDON. June 4. The “Daily Mail’s” Paris correspondent says that considerable speculation and some uneasiness have been aroused in French diplomatic circles by a Romo dispatch to the Havas News Agency, bearing many indications of official inspiration, in which Italy’s military preparedness is emphasised.” “The Italian military machine is oiled ready to function at the first call. Forty-eight divisions are mobilised on a war footing,” it states. Some French quarters believe that the dispatch, to which Paris newspapers give prominence, is intended as an indication that events which may be imminent in Central Europe might necessitate Italy’s armed intervention. The more general interpretation is that it is intended as a clear warning that the failure to remove sanctions at the forthcoming League Council meeting will involve serious consequences. The dispatch states: “In tho military as w*dl asa the political sphere, Italy is preparing for all eventualities and will, should the occasion arise, revise her military as well as her political friendships.” French commentators refer repeatedly to tho increasingly close Halo-Ger-man contact.