BRITISH INTERESTS

Northern Advocate, 12 August 1935, Page 5

BRITISH INTERESTS

AFRICAN DISPUTE MAY BE INVOLVED ITALIAN TROOPS IN ERITREA [United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright.l (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, August 11. The “Sunday Observer’s” diplomatic correspondent ' anticipates that the conference between France, Britain and Italy on the dispute with Abyssinia will continue a week. He discloses that the British delegation will include a representative of the Egyptian Department of the Foreign Office, owing to anxiety regarding Lake Tsana. - He- adds that the concentration of Italians'in Eritrea suggests the possibility that Italian forces, in the event of hostilities, would early enter the region of. the . headwaters of the Nile, which vitally . interests Egypt and the Sudan. Moreover, Britain would thereby be faced ■.with, a fiat accompli, in a district reserved to herself in the ItaloBritish Treaty of 1926. A-Paris message-says that although it ■ is suggested that M. Laval will go to considerable length to retain Italian friendship, patched up after great efforts in Germany, such an impression is qualified by reports in financial circles that measures have been taken to prevent the Bank of France, and other institutions, granting credit to Italy. It is believed that the more reasonable attitude of the Italian newspapers is due to realisation that France' will not support Italy beyond a certain point. ■ The fact that Sir Robert Vansittart, Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, will accompany Mr. Anthony Eden to Paris is welcomed, as it is believed he is sympathetic to the French ideal of European unity. This may indicate that Britain will make .a gesture, such as participation in a guarantee of Austrian independence, as proof of the League of Nations' solidarity. , The British Minister in , charge •of | the League of Nations, Mr. Anthony 1 Eden, who has been on holiday for a few days in Yorkshire, is expected in London on Monday. On. Tuesday he leaves for Paris, where he will represent Britain in the Three Power- conversations.