SEVERITY OF TONE DEPLORED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26228, 12 August 1946, Page 5

SEVERITY OF TONE DEPLORED

Harsher Terms Than Versailles

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) PARIS, Aug. 10. “ The Italian treaty is very harsh. We do not even see the gleam of hope which was given at Versailles,” said the Italian Prime Minister, Signor A. de Gasperi, addressing the plenary session of the Paris Conference. “ What worries us is not the text of the treaty, but the spirit.” Signor de Gasperi strongly protested against the territorial changes, particularly the Trieste proposals. He claimed that the Italian Navy collaborated with the Allies and pleaded the Italian casualties in resistance against the Germans as justification for more lenient treatment.

Regretting the tone of the treaty, Signor de Gasperi said the allusion to co-belligerents was “ colder and drier ” than the terms applied in other treaties to former enemy countries. Dwelling on the allocation of Trieste to Jugoslavia, which was a “bitter disappointment, arousing the strongest reaction in Italy,” Signor de Gasperi pointed out that 646,000 Italians would thus be severed from their country.

He appealed for a chance for Italy to make a full contribution to recovery. “We are a nation of 47,000,000 toilers ready to pool our efforts with yours in the creation of a more just and humane world,” he said.