FRIENDSHIP WITH ITALY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 29 November 1938, Page 6

FRIENDSHIP WITH ITALY

VALUABLE AGREEMENT fßy A ; r Mail—Own Correspondent! LONDON, 10th November. Parliament having approved the bringing into force of the Anglo-Italian Agreement, no time will now be lost over the remaining preliminary formalities, and it is expected that the pact will be .signed before the middle of this month. There had been considerable nervousness in advance of the debate on the part of a number of Conservative members, who feared they might find some difficulty in reconciling their consciences to approval of the agreement in the light of the inconsiderable withdrawal of Italian forces from Spain. Mr Chamberlain, however, presented the issue to them in a different light by showing that the Spanish civil war has already ceased to constitute a menace to the peace of Europe—the essential condition which he envisaged as a settlement. His revelation that Spain had also been discussed during the Munich meeting, and that both Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had given assurances that they had no territorial aims in that country, brought evident encouragement to the faint-hearted. Obviously Mr Eden could not approve ratification of an agreement, the negotiation ol' which had led to his resignation of the Foreign Secretaryship, but the debate disclosed that he had fewer followers than certain prophets had foretold. As a step towards appeasement, the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement can hardly be over-estimated. and Mr Chamberlain made one of the most forceful points in its favour when he reminded the House that he would have been unable to seek Signor Mussolini’s assistance in bringing about the Munich meeting had he not previously effected an improvement in the unfortunate relations between Britain and Italy which existed up to the beginning of this year.