Anglo-Italian Contest

Northern Advocate, 14 August 1935, Page 7

Anglo-Italian Contest

THE MEDITERRANEAN QUESTION OF CONTROL MUSSOLINI’S INTENTION. FRENCH OPINION. L“The Rimes’’ Cable.] LONDON, August 13. The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says the conviction is growing in France that the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia is becoming an Anglo-Italian contest, owing to Italy’s intention to dominate the Mediterranean. The French believe Britain has enjoyed naval control in the Mediterranean on suffrence, but that her position has been reduced by technical and political developments.. Italy is now convinced of the importance of claiming an acknowledged, if not the predominant share in the control of the Mediterranean. Her appearance at the source of the Nile, which gives her the strategic key to the Nile Valley, is an obvious step to that claim. The Alexandria correspondent of “The Times” says the passage of Italian reinforcements through the Suez Canal to Eritrea is proceeding apace. Transports pass Port Said daily, including Greek and Danish cargo boats, with munitions and other supplies, including beer, as wine has been found too heating for the troops. Most of the transport movement is at night, and the ships are berthed well away from the town, particularly ships returning to Italy with invalids.! It is estimated that homeward bound j hospital ships have already carried more than 5000 cases of malaria and dysentery and a few of typhoid. No soldiers are allowed to go ashore from the transports. ALARMING SITUATION “ELEMENTS OF ANOTHER WORLD WAR.” (Received noon.) LONDON, August 13. “Abyssinia is to be left practically defenceless to be butchered to make a Roman holiday,” declares Viscount Snowden in a letter to “The Times.” He adds: “The international complications which will arise are too terrible to contemplate. The coloured peoples are feeling a sense of solidarity that will seriously trouble European colonial possessions and will certainly develop. Signor Mussolini’s / next enterprise, if he is successful in Abyssinia, will be to make Austria an Italian province. There are all the elements of another world war in the present situation.” Eritrea Development. The Rome correspondent of “The Times” states that the extent of Italian 'development in Eritrea is revealed by the “Giornale d’ltalia,” which admits that Massawa was not originally equipped to handle heavy traffic and that congestion has resulted. It*is now believed that by fleets of motor transport, and the construction of roads to Asmara, the port’s unloading’ capacity has risen from 300 to 3500 tons daily. Formerly, the railway from Massawa to Asmara ran two trains daily, but now there are six, and these in the past three months, have carried 16,000 passengers and 36,000 tons of goods. Moreover, 306 kilometres of road have been built, 15 wells reopened and 16 new wells sunk.. Twelve reservoirs have been constructed and the aerodromes have been increased threefold. Seventeen hospitals have been enlarged and many warehouses built, and the population has risen from 4528 to 55,000, of which 25,000 are Italian workmen. . Signor Mussolini has promised that the result in the next six months will be even better.