ITALIAN INTEREST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 190, 13 July 1936, Page 7

ITALIAN INTEREST.

TRIUMPH FOR THE DUCE.

LONDON. July 11

The Observer’s Rome correspondent, attributing the agreement to Signor MussoFni’s diplomacy, says that the Duce has achieved an important triumph. The inclusion of the Rome Protocol rids Italy of danger on the' Brenner Pass frontier, which has dominated Italian life since the war, and also lias eliminated the possibility of an anschluss (Customs union) which would he a casus belli to Italy. According to a Vienna message reports from Romo state that Herr Hitler has guaranteed not to interfere with Austria as the price of Italian suoport against the Locarno Powers. Tt is stated in official circles at Vienna that Signor Mussolini had nothing to do with the _ agreement, which was concluded between Dr. Scliuschnigg and Dr. Von Papon alone, and was due to Herr Hitler’s desire I to conciliate Britain and leave Germany free to deal with problems elsewhere in Europe, including Danzig. The Austro-Gormnn agreement may involve the reconstruction of the Austrian Cabinet, and certainly will moan an amnesty for imprisoned Nazis. The Daily Herald’s diplomatic correspondent asserts that Signor Mussolini has now changed his views on Euronean policy. Last year he strongly supported the Stresa front, namely, Britain, France and Italy, largely because lie expected acquiescence in his I

Abyssinian adventure. He is now strongly against it, partly out of resentment and partly because now he is more afraid of being involved in a quarrel with Germany. Italy, therefore, will participate in the Locarno Powers’ meeting only on the understanding that Germany is brought in and a serious attempt made to settle •all outstanding questions. The Daily Mail’s Paris correspondent, in a dispatch written before the agreement was announced, said that persistent reports of an Italo-German settlement regarding the independence of Austria were causing uneasiness in French official circles. It was felt that Italy must bo giving Germany something very substantial in return for the latter’s reported abandonment of the idea of an Austro-Gorman union.