Mussolini Under The Spotlight

Northern Advocate, 21 July 1939, Page 5

Mussolini Under The Spotlight

LONDON. July 19. The Marquis of Clydesdale asked in the House of Commons today whether, in view of the fact that although the South Tyrol is the only place in Europe where frontier revision provides a simple solution of a racial problem. Herr Hitler apparently prefers settling this problem by a scheme to remove the German population from their land, steps will be taken to obtain detailed information regarding this scheme, with a view to the application of similar principles in the case of other German demands.

The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr R. A, Butler, replied that Britain’s representatives in Germany and Italy were reporting on developments in the plan dealing with the problem of the South Tyrol, of which full details were not yet available. Britain would bear in mind the possible applicability of these principles to other areas.

Lord Clydesdale then asked whether, on the information available to the Foreign-Secretary he thought Herr Hitler would prefer war to settling his demands by a scheme such as that onerating in the South Tyrol, and did the Foreign Secretary also think that Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had initiated a new principle for solving racial problems by negotiation rather than by war; or, on the other hand, was he (Lord Clydesdale) to understand that Herr Hitler had, for the sake of expediency, shown himself as treacherous to his own people as ho was to Mr Chamberlain at Munich. Mr Butler replied: “I think we can all draw conclusions from the actions taken.”