HOSTILE ACTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 227, 23 August 1935, Page 9

HOSTILE ACTS

WARNING BY ITALY. ARMS FOR ABYSSINIA. SANCTIONS NOT ACCEPTABLE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received August 23, 10.25 a.m. ROME, Aug. 22. Signor Gayda, in the Giornale D’ltalia, declares that Italy would regard as hostile acts Britain’s supplying of arms to Abyssinia in violation of the agreement of 1930 pledging her t.o supply a limited quantity under special circumstances, adopting economic sanctions, or closing tho Suez Canal, which would be an intolerable violation of the 1888 Convention. Incendiary firemen of Britain, desiring to extinguish a small blaze, were throwing oil on the fire, risking a frightful world-wide war in which the Italians would defend their .rights and honour before the tribunal of history, the writer adds. FRANCE PLAYING SAFE. ADVOCACY OF CAUTION. SANCTIONS NOT DESIRED. (Times Cables.) LONDON, Aug. 22. The Paris correspondent of the Times says that responsible Frenchmen are hoping that the tension in the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia caused by Anglo-ltalian relations will not lead the British Cabinet to make a precipitate decision or formulate a policy for the League Council meeting making conciliation impossible.

Admittedly the hope of a favourable development between now and September 4 is most slender, but it is felt that calm and caution now may improve matters while recriminations would only make matters worse. M. Laval (Prime Minister) undoubtedlv will seize any offered opportunity for further conciliation, but the French Government is convinced that no opening will bo found if anything is said or done to exacerbate Italian feeling still further or make a relaxation of Signor Mussolini’s attitude impossible without humiliation.

French hopes for peace thus hang on the faint possibility of Italian initiative, but if these are dashed the French Government’s next concern will be to limit the inevitable conflict. Sanctums against Italy, in the French view, would run the risk of extending the conflict. If fighting must occur, the French are hoping it will be brief and will take the form of a rapid seizure of undefended outlying points and areas but, whatever the course of events, it is certain that the French Government, while abating nothing in its belief in support for the League as ail instrument of European peace, will decline to use it in such a way as to bring into Europe a conflict which is at jiresent confined to a more distant and less vital quarter of tho globe. ITALY ANS LEAGUE. WILL ATTEND MEETING. LONDON, Aug. 21. The Daily Mail's Rome correspondent says that Italy will definitely attend the League Council meeting on September 4, when tho full facts of her case against Abyssinia will be laid before the Council.

Signor Mussolini lias so decided because he is convinced the Council will then appreciate the incontrovertible nature of Italy’s rightness and the integrity ol' her intentions. ITALIAN_PRESS. A CHANGED ATTITUDE. ROME, Aug. 22. Signor Virginio Gayda, sensing a changing atmosphere, has dropped threats against Britain in favour of persuasion. He traces the history of English and Italian co-operation in Africa, leading up to a suggestion that Britain will benefit from Italian occupation of Abyssinia which would ensure peace on tho frontiers and development of the country bordering three British possessions. Hence there would be a beneficial increase in reciprocal economic relations between these territories. EUROPE UNEASY. TROOPS ON THE MOVE. (Times Cables.) LONDON, Aug. 22. The Times Barcelona correspondent says that, indicating the increasing European nervousness, Spanish troops have been embarked for the Balearic Islands, which hitherto were not protected, while artillery units are being drafted in the direction of Gibraltar. Two warships will be stationed permanently at Gibraltar and two others will cruise in Balearic waters. The Times Simla correspondent says that the 14th Punjab Regiment is being dispatched from Bombay to augment tho guard at the British Legation at Addis Ababa. MORAL SYMPATHY. • AGAINST THE ITALIANS. WESTRALIAN EXPRESSION. Received August 23, 10.35 a.m. PERTH, Aug. 23. The Premier (Mr Collier), in the Assembly, declared his abhorrence of war and praised the British Government’s efforts to preserve world peace. Mr Collier, whose speech was loudly applauded by the members, said the moral sympathy of tho world would be against Itaiy in her dispute with Abyssinia. The acting Vice-Consul for Italy (Signor Constantine) expressed regret that the Premier should have shown an attitude of discrimination and regretted that the head of a State Government should publicly antagonise Italy. INJURY TO CONSUL. A HUNTING ACCIDENT. Received August 23. 8.55 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 22. Addis Ababa reports that Baron Falconi, Italian Consul at Debra Marcos, 125 miles north-west of Addis Ababa, was shot while on a hunting expedition. He has been sent to hospital. Later the Italian Legation announced that Baron Ealconi had been accidentally wounded by his own gun. Unconfirmed reports from Berlin had stated that Italy had broken off relations with Abyssinia on account ot this incident. An official communique states that Baron Falconi, who was travelling with the usual caravan of mules and ser-

vants, left the caravan on horseback with hij personal servant to shoot game. The servant says he left him with the horse and walked some distance. The servant heard two shots and a cry for help, and found Baron Falconi with a shot wound in the chest. He was conveyed to the Addis Ababa Hospital. Baron Falconi is a son-in-law of Sir Sydney Barton (British Minister at Abyssinia). ACTION JY BANK. RECALL OF CREDITS. LONDON, Aug. 21. In view of the serious deterioration in Italian exchange, one of the “Big Five” banks has recalled its entire Italian credits. Other banks are expected to follow its lead. The decision is due to economic, not political, considerations. The banks do not desire a repetition of the losses incurred in the German financial collapse. The Daily Telegraph’s Rome correspondent says that the Treasury account for July shows that the expenditure on the East African expedition has amounted to £6,250,000. The Budget deficit for July alone was £8,350,000 and the public debt is £1,771,000,000. AMERICA’^ATTITUDE. WHITE HOUSE MEETING. WASHINGTON. Aug. 21. The Senate’s passing of the sevenpoint policy reversing the neutrality programme caused President Roosevelt suddenly to call a AVhite House conference to seek agreement on the legislation. A division of opinion is already apparent in the House of Representatives and President Roosevelt has privately expresed his views of the sweeping anti-war declaration including major reversals of United States traditional policy. The President summoned Mr Cordell Hull (Secretary of State), the Assistant Secretary (Mr Walton), and Mr S. U. Mcßeynolds (chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee). While he made no statement, intimate friends of the President believe that he favours permissive rathor than mandatory legislation to conform with the existing policy. A plan to modify the Bill to make it more flexible was worked out at the White House conference. Those attending the conference were left in no doubt that the romoval of the mandatory provisions would be sought. Mr Mcßeynolds predicted that a compromise would be worked out. archbishops’ query. WHAT EXCUSE FOR AVAR? (Times Cables.) LONDON. Aug. 22. Dr. Hinsley, Archbishop of A\ Testminster, in reply to the “truce of God” appeal in a letter to the Times, asks: ‘‘AA’hat excuse can there be for even a war in self-defence when machinery to secure justice and peace, suggested by Pope Benedict XA r , is embodied in the League of Nations, and the AVorld Court is established and capable of functioning?” He recalls that Pope Pius XI, in 1933, emphatically summoned the world to true peace. He had condemned time and again the race in armaments and still continued working, striving and praying for peace. Dr Hinaley concludes that he himself is ordering a prayer for peace to be said at every Mass in the archdiocese of AYestminster till further notice.

Mr Lansbury, in a letter to the Times, urged the Archbishop of Ganterbury to take the lead in a.n appeal to the Pope to convoke a congress ot (svery phase of Christian thought at Jerusalem to call a “truce of Ood from the Mount of Calvary. DANGER TO LEAGUE. NAZIS SAID TO BE PLEASED. (Times Cables.) LONDON, Aug. 21. The Berlin correspondent of the Times says that, although the official German ‘ attitude is non-eomnntta , Nazi satisfaction at the imminent collapse of the League system is not disguised. . Extremists believe that war wnl further their plans, though the hreeaters’ expectation that it will enable Germany to occupy Austria before December is not likely to be realised. It is generally accepted that the struggle, whatever the outcome, will weaken Italy and fully occupy Britain and France, possibly leading .Britain to abandon the collective system in disgust. BOMBING_BY ’PLANE DIFFICULT IN PRACTICE. WELLINGTON, Aug. 23. “The bombing of the Abyssinian forces by Italian airmen will not be such a simple thing as most people imagine,” said an ex-service man who has seen action in Egypt and Mesopotamia. “Flying in that part of the world is not what it is here. On account of the heat, and the consequent bumpy conditions overhead, there is not much flying done between 9 a .m. and 4 p.m. If they do fly between those hours then they have to reckon on the haze which is always there. They cannot fly very high or they lose sight of the ground, and when they fly low there is always the danger of being sniped. * “You know how it was in Mesopotamia and also in Afghanistan. The Arabs and Afghans think it great fun to take a ‘pot’ at an aeroplane oil the wing, and we all know how often they have caused trouble. Now, airmen, knowing this, could easily mount out of harm’s way, if it were not that they might so easily lost visual contact with the earth through the haze.” BRITAIN’S VITAL INTERESTS. CONTROL OF LAKE TSANA. “Britain is vitally interested in the Abyssinian question as economic issues of momentous importance to the Empire are at stake,” said Professor S. H. Roberts, Professor of History at the Sydney University, in an address to the Sydney Rotary Club. Professor Roberts said that Australians should not be led away by assertions of a great nation trying to bully a little one. Most Australians seemed to assume, without serious thought, that Italy was wrongly endeavouring to grasp a territory with a long national history. Abyssinia was not an organised State, but a conglomeration of about 700 little States speaking about 70 languages. Abyssinia was like Morocco before the French went there and the Sudan before the British took control. There had boon five dynasties in Abyssinia during the last 100 years. The present King bad no more right to the throne than at least 25 others. The story of Abyssinia was one of rapine, plunder, and civil wars. Many of the provinces did not recognise the present King, who, since 1931, had I doubled the territory which he con- | trolled. There were more than 2.000.000 slaves in Abyssinia, and Britain had to | expend large sums annually to prevent

Abyssinian raids for slaves into Kenya Colonv and the Sudan. RED SEA AND SUEZ CANAL. Professor Roberts said that Italy was only doing in Abyssinia what other nations had done in Africa during the last century. In 1925, Britain and Italy came to an agreement which gave Italy certain rights in Southern Abyssinia, but the national rights of that country were not to be impaired. British interests were in the north of Abyssinia. Some now said that if Italy got its way in Abyssinia it would have the right of closing the Red Sea and paralyzing the Suez Canal. That was a strong argument, but not very valid. The argument that the head waters of the Nile could be controlled from Abyssinia was the most important matter, and one of vital interest to Egypt. The Nile depended for its waters on Lake Tsana, in Abyssinia, and by a dam at that lake the waters could be diverted from Egypt. In short, whoever controlled Lake Tsana could either flood Egypt or deprive it of water. Britain was vitally concerned lest Italy should get power to control the waters of that lake. Italy had refused to allow the critical issue to bo discussed by the League of Nations, and questioned the right of Abyssinia to be a member of the League. Italy invoked Article 23 of the League Covenant, which stated that no member of the League should hold slaves. Professor Roberts said that he did not believe that tlie majority of the nations ill the League would condemn Italy. The issue might rest with Britain and some of the smaller States of South America. Assuming the League gave a decision against Abyssinia, and other nations refused to apply the provisions of the economic sanctions clause against Italy, Britain might be , left on her own—not for the first time in history. It was possible that the Council of the League might consider the advisability of giving Italy some sort of a mandate over Abyssinia. Many issues were thus involved besides the quarrel between Italy and Abyssinia. The dispute might have a repercussion in South Africa and in every country where there was a racial problem.