Italy Calling In Reservists as Counter To French Intervention

Northern Advocate, 26 January 1939, Page 7

Italy Calling In Reservists as Counter To French Intervention

(Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, January 25. TT IS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED IN ROME THAT 60,000 OF THE 1901 CLASS OF RESERVISTS ARE B EING CALLED UP ON FEBRUARY 1. Reuter’s Rome correspondent reports that 30,000 regulars are concentrated at Genoa and Spezia in readines s to go to Spain at a moment’s notice in the event of French troops crosing the frontier. The Associated Press says Whiteh all is shocked by the news of Italy’s recall of reservists for which there seems no reasonable explanation. It is stated that France must regar d the recall as perilously close to an act of aggression. MAJOR CRISIS ENVISAGED. The class called up .according to official information, is comprised mainly of business men, upon whom . Italy is hardly likely to call unless she is envisaging a major crisis. It is suggested that Italy’s sudden translation of threats into action explains Dr. Schacht’s removal from the preidency of the Reichsbank. Italy’s economic position would n ot enable her to launch a war unaided, and it was certain that Dr. Schacht did not consider that Germany’s position justified the assurance of assistance to Italy. CRISIS WITHIN A MONTH Well-informed people in London and Paris fear a crisis within a month in the West Mediterranean, says Mr Vernon Bartlett, in an article in the “News Chronicle,” commenting on re ports that German troops are concentrating at Klagenfurt and Villach, and that German officers are already in Libya. The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says the calling up of the Italian reservists has intensified the uneasy belief that Barcelona’s fall will be the signal for a diplomatic offensive by Italy against France.