ITALIAN TRENDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 62, 11 February 1936, Page 7

ITALIAN TRENDS

LINKING WITH GERMANY? TO STRIKE A BARGAIN. OBSERVERS’ DEDUCTIONS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, Feb. 10. Is Italy turning toward Germany? The Daily Telegraph’s Berlin correspondent says that the future of the Locarno Treaty is believed to be the subject of talks which are progressing between Berlin and Home. It is considered that an emergency might arise from tiie Abyssinian war which would cause Italy to withdraw from the treaty. Tills would afford Germany an opportunity for denouncing the Rhineland demilitarisation protocol. The position now appears to be that Italy would renounce her trust as guarantor if Herr Hitler would make an open gesture of friendship toward Rome. Herr Hitler hesitates on account of British susceptibilities, but is willing to meet Signor Alussolini as far as possible in the directon of easement of Italy’s financial difficulties and the problem of supplies, though Germany’s own difficulties jireclude generosity. The Daily Alaii’s Paris correspondent says that well-informed writers express the opinion that Italy is being impelled by the hostility of snnetionist Powers to throw her lot in with Germany. The Rome correspondent of Le Temps says: If the sanctionist movement l reaches the point of compromising Italy’s future she will have no alternative but to range herself alongside Germany. L’Oeuvre says that Rome has found means to Jet Berlin understand that her policy is not indifferent to German opinion. AI . Flandin, however, told the Council of Ministers that there was little probability of oil sanctions because experts had agreed that an embargo would be inoperative without United States co-operation. Secondly, there was little enthusiasm in the capitals of Europe for “this extremely dangerous move.”