FATE OF GREECE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24460, 20 November 1940, Page 7

FATE OF GREECE

MUSSOLINI'S BOAST CATASTROPHE CERTAIN "BACK WILL BE BROKEN" (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph-Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 18. •(Received Nov. 19, at 9 p.m.) Signor Mussolini described the imposition of sanctions as the first and last attempt of the Old World, influenced by the superannuated ideas of the League of Nations, against new European forces represented by Italy and Germany. "Even after sanctions peace could still have been preserved if Britain had not, with supine complacence, initiated her policy of encirclement instead of constructive revision of treaties. This policy was not made with the object of retaining Danzig for Poland, but of destroying the political and military power of Germany. Peace could have been saved even in the last hours of August, 1929, if England, under pressure from the Polish Ambassador, had not stood ou l . for one absolutely unacceptable condition to the conference proposed by Italy—that the German troops already moving should not only be halted, but actually sent back to their starting place." Referring to Greece, Signor Mussolini said: " I don't think it is worth while to deny reports of the Greek victories rumoured abroad. General Soddu visited an alpine division which was supposed to have been destroyed and telegraphed that it was in fine condition.

"With absolute certainty we 'will break Greece's back in two months or 12 months, it does not matter which. We have the means to break Greek resistance and British help will not ' prevent a Greek catastrophe. Those who think otherwise don't know me. Once I have taken a decision I do not weaken, and » whatever happens I'll prove that." Signor Mussolini confessed that the mountains of Epirus. and the muddy valleys had not lent themselves to lightning warfare. He added: "No act of mine has led anyone to believe otherwise." Observers in London detect in Signor Mussolini's speech indications that II Duce is on the defensive—an unaccustomed note in the discourses he loves addressing to well-drilled Fascist crowds. It was the fifth anniversary of the adoption by the League of Nations of th<* programme of economic sanctions designed to assist Abyssinia's resistance to an act of unprovoked aggression by Fascist Italy in defiance of her obligations under the League Covenant and the Pact of Paris. The fact was that the growing threat of a secretly calculated and Dlanned appeal to force by the Nazis under the cloak of Herr Hitler's peaceful professions had subjected the League's untried, security system to such stresses and strains that in its first hour of trial it proved impossible tc rally the collective will of States and make it effective—this Signor Mussolini chose once again to describe and celebrate as a Fascist " victory over 52 nations." Here he was on sure ground, which Fascist propaganda had made comfortably familiar to the Italian people, but as he passed to Italy's entry into Herr Hitler's war on what proved to be a miscalculation, that the sacrifices from Italians would be slight and quickly and handsomely recompensed by a share of the victors' booty, his blustering falsification of the historic record of Britain's strenuous and unremitting efforts to safeguard peace betrayed anxiety, which became more evident as he reached Italy's own campaigns. ,

He seemed to be searching for some way of counteracting the impression, which is growing among neutrals and is prevalent even in Italy, that for the time being something has gone wrong with the Italian war effort. Despite his boasts of having command of the. Mediterranean, the Italian Fleet has evaded engagements and waited behind shore defences to be battered to pieces by British airmen. The much advertised advance in the Western Desert has not been followed up despite the estimated inferiority in material and numbers of the defence. Incursions into the Sudan proved abortive and now the cold-blooded attack upon a scrupulously neutral neighbour, Greece, has been halted and the heroic defenders of a small and relatively weak State have actually forced back the invaders. Exaggerated Claims It will not be surprising if all this has created some uneasiness in Italy itself, and the Duce's denunciation of pacifism and a call for renewed vigour on the part of the Fascist Party are interesting. It is certainly felt here to be significant that he found it necessary to insist at such length on the reliability of the Italian communiques. . The Italians may have been getting puzzled by claims such as that in a recent official statement from Rome on the naval position that Italian forces had sunk more British battleships than in fact Britain was known to have in the Mediterranean. There is some speculation in London whether his audience heard with entire relish the Duce's boasts of his knight errantry towards his Axis friends in sending unsolicited Italian squadrons to take part in the German air war on Britain. It is more than likely that most of the Italians would prefer to do nothing rather than unnecessarily attract »the attention of the R.A.F., while the more ardent Fascists may wonder why these aircraft could not be usefullv employed against " enemy " objectives nearer home.

A spokesman stated that Mussolini's boast that Italy would soon surpass and certainly equal the airpower of other European countries did not remotely resemble the truth.