MEETING IN ROME

Southland Times, Issue 23716, 14 January 1939, Page 5

MEETING IN ROME

TALKS REGARDED AS CORDIAL

MUSSOLINI SPEAKS ON SPAIN

CLAIM FOR BELLIGERENT RIGHTS FOR FRANCO

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received January 14, 1.5 a.m.) ROME, January 13. After formal conversations between the British Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) and Signor Mussolini, the British spokesman stated that neither side had asked or given any commitment or agreement. Both stated

that they appreciated the other’s standpoint. It appears that both sides defined their positions without showing willingness to make concessions.

The general impression is that the whole tone of the conversations was cordial. Little progress can be expected at present. It is stated from British sources that Signor Mussolini spoke at length on Spain, stating that General Franco’s military advances made it most necessary to ireceive belligerent rights, which Italy believes is an essential preliminary to clarification. He hinted it would enable Italy to consider further withdrawals.

Lord Halifax received the French and American Ambassadors .and gave an outline of the talks.

The Pope gave an audience to Mr Chamberlain and Lord Halifax at the Vatican. He modified- The usually strict etiquette Requiring visitors to wear evening dress and permitted formal morning clothes. A survey of all messages from Rome gives no indication of the nature of the first conversations. There is not a ray of light whatever in the Italian press, states a message from London. “Everything went well. I am optimistic regarding the. result,” declared Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister, the only official who commented on tbe events of yesterday, according to another message from Rome. The first talks were not positive. The British Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax) called on Count Ciano for an hour and immediately afterwards the German Ambassador saw Count Ciano and, it is believed, was told the details of yesterday’s meeting. Shortly before noon the British delegation drove along the banks of the Tiber in glorious sunshine and visited the Piazzo del Pantheon. Mr Chamberlain laid a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and groups of bystanders informally and cordially clapped the delegation, which lunched with the King and then attended a gymnastic- and military display with Signor Mussolini in the forum in the afternoon and a gala opera in the evening.

LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT TALKS EXCHANGE OF MILITARY DATA (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, January 12. Little information is available about the conversations in Rome apart from the fact that both sides spoke frankly and fully of the need for preserving peace. The conversations when resumed this evening lasted for an hour. A statement in Mr' Chamberlain’s Rome speech that Britain and Italy had proceeded to exchange military information recalls the terms of the second annex to the Rome Agreement, providing for the exchange of information about any major prospective administrative movements or tjie redistribution of the naval, military and air forces of the two countries stationed in or based on the overseas possessions of either party in or having a seaboard on tbe Mediterranean, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden or in or upon certain territories in North-East and East Africa.