THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1935. ITALY AND ABYSSINIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22742, 30 November 1935, Page 12

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1935. ITALY AND ABYSSINIA

Little indication of further progress on the part of - the Italian forces operating in Abyssinia is reported in either the north or the south. The information concerning actual activities is generally conflicting, according to the sources from which it is derived, but it seems reasonable to infer that, while the Abyssinian tactics are those of guerilla warfare, the Italians are meeting with a resistance that is by no means negligible, and are far from having matters all their own way. The prospect of a large-scale battle seems to recede rather than otherwise. There is no recent suggestion, at all events, that such a clash is impending, and it is not likely to occur before the Italian advance reaches ground upon which it suits the Abyssinians to make a considerable stand. Dr Tlawariat has spoken of the confidence of the Abyssinian high command of being able to hold off the Italians, who are already suffering from malaria, until the June rains begin. Despite their source, statements of that kind, if they get into circulation in Italy—though it is not likely that they will be permitted to appear in the papers—are calculated to excite doubts in the mind of the Italian people concerning the value of the Fascist Grand Council’s declaration that their country will probably attain its military aims in Abyssinia by April. It is possible that these aims may even be beginning to shrink as the vision of achievement becomes contracted. A message from the Rome correspondent of The Times is interesting in various aspects. Recently the Italian Government issued leave to home troops to the number of 100,000 with the ostensible object of rendering their labour available to increase the agricultural output. That leave, it is stated, has now been cancelled, while the Government is said to

have ordered certain unspecified troop movements. The significance that is to be attached to this is not immediately apparent. Suggestions offered are that Italy may intend moving troops to her northern frontiers or to the Egyptian frontier. But the inference is invited that, in whatever measures the Italian Government is taking, the effect is discernible of the Geneva proposal to extend economic sanctions to key-products, and to oil in particular. According to the correspondent of The Times the Italians refuse to admit that such an embargo can be regarded as anything but a deliberately hostile act of a military character justifying some form of military retaliation. That they may be gravely perturbed at the prospect that fresh sanctions may bring the campaign in ‘Ethiopia to an inconclusive termination may be readily believed. But if it . becomes increasingly difficult for Italy to carry on in Abyssinia, her operations there will not be assisted by her engagement in other military undertakings. It is possible, however, that, while an oil embargo, over which France is not enthusiastic, is still only in prospect, the Italian Government hopes to influence the decision by a demonstration conveying the impression that she would in fact regard the imposition of it as an act of hostility. Italy draws her chief supplies of oil, it has been stated, from Russia and Rumania, and only one-fifth of her imports of that commodity from the United States, where the Government is showing commendable consistency in discouraging exporters, who are looking for war profits. It is easy to believe that the Italian people, who have probably by this time lost 1 much of that earlier fervour for the war which was supposed to animate them—for disillusionment must be coming to them concerning the rapid and spectacular successes which they were led to expect—are finding little cause for satisfaction on either the Abyssinian or the sanctions situation. They have had time to realise that war with Ethiopia means sacrifices on their part, and the prospect of a League embargo on oil, coal and iron may well be creating genuine apprehension in Italy. For even the heroic speeches of Signor Mussolini must fail to keep the Italian nation keyed up to war enthusiasm in face of realities. The aim of the League Powers is to bring hostilities to an end as soon as possible. If “popular restlessness and pessimism” are discernible in Italy, as the correspondent of a Paris journal suggests, this may yet become a factor important enough to influence the Fascist Grand Council to discover that the attainment of the country’s military objectives in Abyssinia is much more remote than had been supposed. As a military writer in The Times recently observed, “ You cannot control and police a great population by merely sprinkling it with bombs from the air.”