Foreign Affairs ITALIAN AIMS IN ALBANIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 15 April 1939, Page 13

Foreign Affairs ITALIAN AIMS IN ALBANIA

ATTACK A THREAT TO YUGOSLAVIA > t

c t WEEK OF ALARMS AND MENACES * * 1 1 “To save all we must risk all,” wrote Sehiller. Mr Chamberlain c risked everything - by his guarantee to Poland on 31st March when he removed any possible doubt regarding the extent of the British promise I to safeguard Polish independence (writes Professor S. H. Roberts in f the Sydney “Herald”). *

Facing a House more unanimous than on any previous occasion in recent British history, the Prime Minister, scorning petty details as to what might constitute aggression or territorial integrity. promised to aid the Poles „ should they become the victims of any j hostile act that might threaten their j freedom. Reaffirming his pledge of the previous Friday, he spoke after the fiasco of Hitler’s broadcast at Hamburg. Hitler had answered the British guarantee first I by derision, then by a bitter attack on attempts to “encircle” Germany. This! cry was not true when von Bulow first raised it in the early years of the cen- ! tury; it is not true to-day. when the; aim of Britain and France is solely the prevention of militaristic aggres-j sion. However divided opinions may be about Mr Chamberlain’s past acts.! there is no doubt that he had to-day set : Britain’s foreign policy along a clearly j j determined course, a course from which j there can be no drawing back if she! j is to keep her national honour. Britain and France have announced | „ that the rest of the world cannot live! side by side with a Power intent on ex-: ternal aggression. They have put aside their old ingrained objections to j guarantees given in advance; they have i made promises even for the little-! known regions of eastern Europe; and | they have opened negotiations to ex- 1 tend those guarantees to the most iso-1 lated corners of the European Con-| tinent. A NEW ERA ! History cannot but look upon this new policy as the most momentous j happening since the last war, for it bei gins a new era of collective security. I this time on a sounder basis. If it is to ; be peace, it will be a peace founded lon protection against aggression; while, if it is to be war, Britain has j pledged herself to fight to the death, j Poland has already responded to the | call. When the British pledge was isI sued it was unilateral. It operated even if the Poles undertook no reciprocal j pledges towards Britain. But. to use Mr j Chamberlain’s very apt analogy, the Poles have not only accepted the interim safety of the cover-note; they have now completed the insurance polI icy and entered into their side of the bargain.

Before Colonel Beck left London Mr Chamberlain announced that he had pledged Poland to support Britain if (he latter were attacked. Further, he has arranged to meet the Rumanian Foreign Minister, M. Gafencu, in the near future, and it is inevitable that he must try to pursuade the Rumanians to join the anti-aggression bloc, if only because of the nature of the present pact between Poland and Rumania. Nor is this all. Colonel Beck has also apparently left the door open for British negotiations with Russia. Under existing conditions. Poland herself could scarcely be expected to join an open bloc with Russia against Germanj'; and it says much for the realisation of a common danger that she has not prevented Britain from still trying to secure Russian aid. Even if the Poles do not want Soviet troops on their soil, the possibilities of Russian action in the Baltic corridor and especially in the Black Sea region cannot be lightly set aside. Rumania, for instance, is much more likely to take a stand if she knows that she may obtain supplies and men from Russia in her rear. YUGOSLAVIA'S TURN Throughout the week, the German and Italian newspapers have been furiously denunciatory Goebbels’s official Press has worked itself up to an hysterical orgy of anti-British feeling; and Hitler’s speech. when launching the Admiral von Tirpitz, closed the door on any hope of peaceful co-operation in the near future. It was reported that Italo-German staff-talks were taking place at Innsbruck, and persistent rumours were heard of pressure on Yugoslavia’s northern frontier and a threat to Albanian independence. There may be many reasons for these rumours. Earlier in the week, it was thought that Bulgaria, spurred cn by Germany, might launch an attack on Rumania to regain her lost Dobrudja, or it was feared that Hungary might seize more or her former lands by force. But the general position m this part of Europe was much too confused to bring about a clear general issue; so the focal point moved farther west, towards Belgrade. Very little has been heard of the Yugoslavs recently. Nobody doubts that they—the former Serbs and Croats—are good

- fighting men, but we have assumed 1 that they were neutralised by their geographical position, squeezed in as they are between Greater Germany and Greater Italy. As southern European standards go, I however, Yugoslavia is a “Have” Power, and, particularly since the collapse of the Little Entente, she has realised thrat her only hope of retaining her past gains is to make the Balkan League a vital factor in the life of southern Europe. That means the maintenance of Rumanian independence and the prevention of Germany’s forward policy. ENTER MUSSOLINI This is where Mussolini comes into the story. Dissatisfied for a long time by his adequate share of loot and not at all pleased with the checkmate to his claims on France, he looked in another directions—across the 45 miles of sea to Albania. The invasion can serve one of two purposes. It can either j divert the world's attention from Hitler for a few days, leaving him free to per- | feet his plans elsewhere, or it can provide a further example of concerted | action on the part of the Rome-Berlin Axis. Albania is a perfect field for such a purpose. It is a veritable European Abyssinia, split up by nature and race into numerous jarring, warlike clans. The Albanians, a million of them, are

mostly fanatical mountaineers, incredibly barbaric, and living only for vendettas. Every lesser chieftain resents the new King’s apeing of the older royalties, and most of them loathe the subservience to Italy into which King Zog has sold them since the treaty of 1927. Italy has control of the coast, and has begun by turning her guns on the naval base of Valona. She dominates Albania’s foreign trade (although the whole of it scarcely amounts to a million pounds a year); and by virtue of her loans since 1925. she throttles the country’s economic life. But these are not the reasons why Italy is seeking a conversion of her effective protectorate into a direct annexation. Mussolini knows that no Italian would relish fighting the abysmally cruel Albanians in their mountain fastnesses. Apart from the coast, all that he is concerned with is the relatively open country near Scutari, in the north, for that is where the new Italian military road comes out, not 200 miles away from Belgrade, the Yugoslavian capital. With Italian troops in northern Albania and German divisions in south Austria, Yugoslavia would be in no position to resist. Nor could she take an active part in any non-aggression guarantee; and, if she drew out. the other members of the Balkan League would be isolated. In short, pressure on Yugoslavia, through Albania, would seriously jeopardise the attempt to extend Britain’s wall of peace to southern Europe. This is the last hope of the Axis Powers—that, by pressure elsewhere, they can leave Poland isolated and force Britain and France to stand to arms on one major front alone, in western Europe. BALKAN VOLCANO On the other hand, Mussolini is playing with explosive material in tampering with the Albanians. Once before, in 1920, they drove an Italian army of occupation into the sea, and their land is utterly unsuitable for mechanised warfare. Moreover, the Greeks and the Yugoslavs have historical claims over certain regions in Albania, and, rather than be completely encircled, they might make the Balkan League a fighting unity. Zog had an army of only 14.000 men, but the Albanians have a saying that they can count on a million and a half guerillas, for “each of our women is worth two men in the field.” It is difficult to see how fighting here could be localised, and, if the Balkan volcano erupts, the whole of Europe may go up in flames. Thus the week which began with a feeling of deadly and imminent menace ends with actual warfare in Albania, and with grave fear for the immediate future elsewhere in Europe. There are alarums from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and behind all, the possibility of a lightning-stroke in a direction that none can foresee. In such an atmosphere of seething mistrust, Mr Chamberlain’s new firmness and the indiscreet but probably calculated defiance of a First Lord of the Admiralty

ircan only have a beneficial effect. As ■ Mr Stimson, the former American Seci retary of State, said, the world has 1 reeled back to face the greatest threat since the Ottoman Turks were ham- , mering at the gates of Budapest four ■ centuries ago.

PRICES OF METALS LONDON, 13th April. The official quotations on the London metals markets compare with those ! Previously cabled as follows: Apr. 12. Apr. 13.

MINING SHARES LONDON, 13th April. Sales of gold-mining shares include: Mount Lyell, 18s 3d; New Guinea, Is lid; Bulolo, £5 2s 6d.

Per ton Per ton. Copper— £ s. d £ s. d. Standard, spot 42 3 n Ditto, forward 42 9 4* Electrolytic 48 0 0 48 0 0 to 48 10 0 48 10 0 Wire bars .. . 43 10 0 Lead— Spot 14 1 101 14 1 104 Forward 14 5 71 14 8 14 Spelter— Spot 13 4 n 13 6 104 Forward .. 13 10 71 13 11 104 Tin— Spot 215 17 6 215 7 6 Forward 213 7 6 213 2 6 Silver— Standard, per oz 20d 20d Fine, per oz .... . 21 9 lGd 21 9-16d