Anglo – Italian Relations

Northern Advocate, 19 December 1938, Page 7

Anglo - Italian Relations

(Received noon.) LONDON, December 17.

Further details of the visit to Rome by Mr. Chamberlain and the. Foreign Secretary. Viscount Halifax, next month, were, it is understood, discussed yesterday, when the British Ambassador in Rome, the Earl of Perth, visited Count Ciano. The more moderate tone now adopted toward France in the Italian press is welcomed in London, as it is felt that an improved atmosphere for the visit will result. *

“The Times,” discussing editorially the territorial claims recently advanced spectacularly, but unofficially, by Italy, draws attention to the statement by the French Foreign Minister, M. Bonnet, that no formal demand for cession of any territory had been made by Italy, and to M3r. Chamberlain’s announcement that Britain’s view of the undertaking to respect the status quo in the Mediterranean, embodied in the Anglo-Italian agreement, applied to Tunis.. “The Times” adds: “The Italian design entirely defeats its object, -for there can be little doubt that the external menace helped the French Prime Minister, M. Daladier, to overcome his internal difficulties. And, from the British point of view, the Italian move has seemed no less illtimed, for it contradicts . both the letter and the spirit of the agreement finally concluded just a fortnight before.

“The Times” doubts whether the moment was really opportune from the Italian point of view, as the immense tract of African , country further south has only recently been acquired, and is as yet neither fully organised nor even fully absorbed.