ITALIAN PLAN TO FINISH WAR

Southland Times, Issue 23306, 16 September 1937, Page 5

ITALIAN PLAN TO FINISH WAR

FRENCH REPORT OF INTENTION

RETALIATION FOR PIRACY AGREEMENT (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received September 16, 1.10 a.m.) LONDON, September 15. “Italy is planning a vast new campaign to finish the Spanish war,” declares the Paris newspaper L’Oeuvre. Marshal Badoglio, the conqueror of Abyssinia, has just returned from a secret mission to Spain. He is reported to have informed Signor Mussolini that 150,000 more men with modern equipment, including gas, are needed to achieve the fall of Madrid before the weather breaks.

“General Franco is reported to have objected to such ruthlessness, but Italy intends to go ahead as a retaliation for the other Powers’ agreement against piracy.” “Italy regards extended participation in the Mediterranean patrol as a matter of prestige,” Signor Mussolini’s newspaper, Popolo d’ltalia, says. “The part the Nyon agreement assigns to Italy is incompatible with her prestige and interests.”

Il Messagero and other newspapers similarly comment, but none indicates whether Italy will come in if offered a larger share in the patrol. It is hinted that it is illogical to expect Italy to protect neutral ships carrying supplies to Republican Spain. The French Press is hopeful that Italy will be brought in, but expresses satisfaction with the British and French action, which will lead to re-establish-ment of their power in the Mediterranean.

In an interview with the Paris newspaper Le Matin Senor Francisco Largo Caballero, a former Prime Minister of Spain and leader of the Socialists, regretted that while Britain and France were protecting. their own shipping nothing was done to protect the Spanish coast. MR EDEN HOPEFUI “We believe we have stopped submarine piracy in the Mediterranean,” declared the British Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden) in a broadcast from Geneva. Mr Eden likened the perpetrators to masked highwaymen who did not stop short of manslaughter and even murder, arousing the horror of all civilized people by their barbarous methods. “The recent submarine sinkings constitute a kind of gangster terrorism in the seas,” said the Foreign Secretary. “What we have done is to authorize patrolling vessels to counter-attack, and if possible destroy, any submarine actually engaged in piracy. The same action will be taken against any submarine found so close to the scene of actual attack that there is no reasonable doubt of its guilt.” The delegates to the conference signed the agreement in alphabetical order. In addition to the details previously announced, Britain and France will operate as far as the entrance to the Dardanelles. The participants with a Mediterranean seaboard are pledged to furnish the necessary assistance in operating the fleets. • The French Foreign Minister (M. Yvon Delbos) said the agreement would ensure security in the Mediterranean. The Soviet Foreign Commissar (M. Maxim Litvinov) said British and French responsibility for the entire Mediterranean instead of a division into zones overcame Russia’s objections, but he regretted that Spanish Government ships were excluded from protection. RAPID DIPLOMACY The successful and rapid conclusion to the Nyon Conference by the signature of the plan is welcomed in London as —in the words of the French Foreign Minister, in his closing speech as president of the conference—“putting an end to a grave situation.” British comment likewise agrees with M. Delbos’s estimate that the accord is practical and effective. “I hope our work will be approved by the world,” said Mr Eden, after signing the agreement. “There is nothing we would welcome more than the close collaboration of all interested nations, whether they are represented here or not, in the execution of our decisions.” The conference empowered the president to convoke a further meeting at Geneva to handle technical details of the arrangement The Admiralty announces that the H.M.S. Cairo, flagship of the Commodore, and the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla are to prepare to proceed to’ the Mediterranean to join the anti-piracy patrol when it comes into force. When the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla reaches the Mediterranean there will be 36 British destroyers and four flotilla leaders in those waters.