WORLD CONFLICT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22333, 3 February 1936, Page 9

WORLD CONFLICT

OUTCOME OF SANCTIONS ROME PAPER'S WARNING RESPONSIBILITY REFUSED APPEAL TO STUDENTS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received Febiuary 2. fi.35 p.m.) MILAN. Feb. 1 " Europe is sliding down the incline of sanctions at the bottom of which is war," declares II Popolo d'ltalia in a sensational article which is attributed to Signor Mussolini, appealing to students throughout Europe to exercise pressure to avoid a new European conflagration. "It is time to establish the responsibility of the bloodthirsty politicians who will not fight themselves but send the students to war," says the article. "If they have their way Europe will inevitably fall into the most unjustifiable and terrible war humanity has ever seen. " The Abyssinian question was a colonial one, far away and confined. So it would have remained. Italy bound herself to respect British Imperial interests nnd declared herself ready to make agreements in an atmosphere of loyalty and harmony. Signor Mussolini himself took the sacred obligation to prevent this colonial conflict from assuming the character of and extending to a European conflict. No person of good faith, therefore, can accuse Italy of any responsibility in the war that is now menacing. " Italy wants security.in Africa and peace in Europe, but to say that sanctions mean peace for Europe is a criminal confusion of the issue. If these sanctions are extended and Europe marches to war the youth of Europe must know right away where the responsibility lies. " Therefore we wish to sound the alarm and to appeal to the youth of Europe. It will be they who will have to march at the head of battalions from the very first hour, and this in defence of the chiefs of the African slave traders. An embargo on oil will develop automatically into a blockade, and a blockade will mean a war no longer limited to a security war, but a war of slaughter in Europe and of vengeance. " There are those who think a war against Italy will be an easy one. They are mistaken. Italy will defend herself toOth and nail, and has been prepared for a long time to meet such an eventuality. The youth of Europe, in order to prevent this monstrosity, must unite in a spiritual unity above all politicians."

ITALIAN BITTERNESS WAR THROUGH SANCTIONS IL DUCE'S DENUNCIATION (Received February 2, G. 35 p.m.) - ROME, Feb. 1 The Italian Government's official spokesman to-da3 T reiterated the opinion that in view of the fact that sanctions experts are to meet at Geneva on Monday, Europe is drifting toward war through sanctions. Italy's objection to an oil embargo did not concern the economic efFect, but the moral consequences. There was nothing at present to justify hope of a European agreement. Italy's military operations in Abyssinia were the only hopeful feature in the world situation. If a conflagration occurred it would not be Italy's fault. Signor Mussolini in a speech to the chiefs of the Black Shirts said Europe's intellectual youth must cover with shame the theorists' "bloody sanctions" which would sentence millions of youths —students, peasants and workmen — never more to see the sun.