THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1935. GREAT BRITAIN AND ITALY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22744, 3 December 1935, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1935. GREAT BRITAIN AND ITALY

It is somewhat difficult to base, on the despatches published by British newspapers, a satisfactory impression of the mental attitude of the Italian people at the present time. But there would seem to be sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion that the progress that is being made by their forces is not providing much stimulus for enthusiasm concerning the war in Abyssinia, and that they are becoming somewhat restless and anxious. The suggestion that the country is tending towards pessimism, and that the Italian Government is approaching a* point at which it would readily accept any settlement that might be regarded as “ honourable,” may or may not reflect the true position with some approach to accuracy. But there seems to be little room for doubt that both the Government and the people of Italy are apprehensive of the effect of the application of sanctions, and that this feeling is bound to show itself increasingly as, they contemplate the probability of a League embargo on exports of oil and other key commodities to Italy. An article was recently cited as having appeared in the officiallyinspired Giornale d’ltalia which went so far as to introduce the hypothesis that Italy might be brought to her knees by increasingly severe sanctions. The Italian people are realising more and more that a war is a terribly expensive luxury, and the fact has been brought home the more closely to them through national appeals to their patriotism in response to which they have been handing over their personal treasures for the replenishment of the depleted coffers of the State. Sanctions, they are being led to believe, are reducing their country to financial straits. The cost of the war is kept in the background. One effect of the proposal for the extension of sanctions has evidently been to excite a fresh wave of resentment against Great Britain.

By skilfully directed propaganda the Italian public is being told that Sanctions are draining the national purse, and for the imposition of sanctions, and for the effect which they are having, Great Britain is being blamed and held up to opprobrium. For anything and everything that the League is doing to try to bring the war to an early close, Great Britain is being treated in Italy as the responsible nation. That the Italian people are so devoid of reasoning power that they are unable to see that their country is in the wrong it is difficult to believe, but apparently they have become accustomed to accepting their opinions from Signor Mussolini. Great Britain had to choose between permitting the. League to be defied and acting in a manner distasteful to Italy. She stood by the League; hence the perfidy of her conduct in Italian eyes. Italy, on the other hand, utterly disregarded both her obligations as a League Power and her treaty undertakings with Abyssinia. Her Government used every argument which ingenuity could suggest to persuade the League Powers to concede that she was justified in the course she was adopting and to agree that the Covenant could not be applied in such a ease. It failed, and the Italian wrath has fallen upon Great Britain. The Italian people have been led to believe that Great Britain has been attempting to use the League Covenant for her selfish ends and has been bent upon the mobilisation of its machinery for the humiliation of Italy. The authors of malicious representations of that kind, declared Sir Samuel Hoare in his important speech in the House of Commons a few weeks ago in which he reviewed the course of Britain’s diplomacy at Geneva, “ are doing their best to kindle a conflagration in Europe, and they are doing their best, by traducing the motives of a member of the League that is honestly trying to carry out its obligations, to destroy the League itself.” In the outcry in Italy against Great Britain the fact is ignored that she is but one of fifty nations which have- condemned Italy as an aggressor State within the meaning of the League Covenant, and have decided that economic sanctions 'shall apply against her. Great Britain took a part in the discussions in keeping with her position among the Powers and her recognition of her responsibilities. She expressed her views freely and*boldly, and made it clear that she would be a participant only in collective action by the League Powers. The absurdity of Italian attempts to single her out as the archculprit in relation to the position which, as a consequence of her own acts, confronts Italy to-day should be apparent to the world at large.