ITALIAN ATTACKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22714, 29 October 1935, Page 10

ITALIAN ATTACKS

BRITAIN PILLORIED

MOVEMENTS IN EGYPT

The Ottobre hae launched another attack against Britain. This time it is the British Intelligence Service (says the Rome correspondent of the Daily Tele graph). This organisation, according to the Otto bre, is trying to set Egyptian opinion against Italy. Under the pretext of defending Egypt, Britain is trying to manoeuvre the advance of Egyptian troops over the border into Libya, an Italian colony. The Ottobre has noted " suspicious movements on the Italian-Egyptian frontier." But Egyptians will understand the trap which is being set for them m the attempt to undermine their friendship with Italy. Knowing all that Italy has given them in the way of trade and culture, Egyptians will pay no attention to the British Intelligence Service efforts. The paper proceeds: "Do not forget that at this moment 24 British warships are at Alexandria. Packed in their proper cases, London is sending five aeroplanes every day to Egypt. Malta has been reinforced with new units and new fortifications. The two lines of British objectives, when prolonged, meet at a point which is in Libian territory. " The time has come to say that Italy fears nothing, even from this quarter." A FRENCH DISCOVERY. In an article headed "Up against the wall of English obstinacy " (reports the Paris bureau of the same London paper), the correspondent of the Paris Soir, who has been sending the opinions of the average Briton upon the Abyssinian crisis, says:— " It is Mussolini's privilege at the present time to be England's bugbear. But it is a dangerous privilege; it is never wise to get on the wrong side of England." After interviewing a Cambridge professor, a musician, an ex-officer who fought in the war, and various others whom he regards as types of the average Englishman, the correspondent is of the opinion that public feeling in England i 6 almost unitedly in favour of putting the brake on Signor Mussolini's plans for expansion, no matter what friction may be engen dered when the brakes are applied. "It was the indignation aroused by the invasion of Belgium which removed the last hesitation of Sir Edward Grey's Cabinet: similarly the torpedoing of the Lusitania brought America's interventiot in the war. Those were the things which aroused Anglo-Saxon sentiments. The same sentiment is now in process of beinsi stirred by the prospect of the oppression of an unfortunate little nation. " Tt is quite evident," he concludes, " according to what I have seen that publ'c opinion in England is beginning to conceive a dislike for Sisrnor Mussolini."