The New Language Of Diplomacy

Southland Times, Issue 23818, 16 May 1939, Page 6

The New Language Of Diplomacy

OPENING the Economic SelfSufficiency Exhibition at Turin, Signor Mussolini made a speech which included many references to world affairs. According to a cable message .from London, printed this morning, the speech is regarded in diplomatic quarters as “pacific and moderate.” Once again it is suggested that the door has been left open, presumably for negotiation; and the general atmosphere is said to be “by no means worse.” These are the small crumbs of comfort which now cause satisfaction in Whitehall and a market buoyancy in the City. The truth seems to be that anything short of an announcement that something drastic will happen on a certain day is welcomed as a contribution to appeasement: nobody takes the trouble to point out that in the past year of sudden events the dictators have not once given a clue to their real intentions in public speeches. ’ Apparently the aim of these speeches is to fortify public opinion, to make sure that

the Italian and German people are in no doubt as to the real aggressors if war comes. Even if Signor Mussolini’s speech is taken at its face value, however, there is nothing in it to encourage the optimism that grows whenever the tension ebbs briefly. He began by saying that there did not at present exist in Europe problems of a magnitude to justify war “which would become universal.. Perhaps he believes there would be justification for wars that could be comfortably localized, especially if they are against small and unprotected nations. He went on to refer to certain “knots that may have to be cut “because harsh reality is sometimes preferable to a long period of difficult suspense.” This, he added, is also the German viewpoint, although in order to cut a knot it is not always necessary to use a sword. The surgeon’s knife has been found useful on occasions, especially at Munich, where the victim was not allowed to consent to the operation until the surgeons had arranged it to their own satisfaction. Another Munich on the Polish question would clearly be acceptable to the dictators. But the warning note is sounded. “We shall march with Germany on every question in Europe. Through the military alliance the Axis has become an unbreakable union.” The Moral Issue

Later II Duce referred with characteristic irony to the moral issue. The map of three continents has been modified in recent times, he said, but Italy, Germany and Japan have not “abstracted a square metre or a solitary individual from the sovereignty of the democracies.” This indicates the gulf which exists between the democratic and totalitarian attitudes. According to Signor Mussolini, the British and French have no cause to complain of fascist imperialism because they themselves have built empires in. the past, not always with pleasant methods. Why, then, should they wish to prevent the new European empires from taking their place in the sun? The answer to this is that world peace has become indivisible in a way never before known. After 1918 it was recognized everywhere that there must be no more wars. Whatever was done in the comparatively remote past, under conditions entirely different from those in modern times, can be no justification for an outbreak of international lawlessness. But these tricks of rhetoric need not be taken seriously. When it is remembered that the man who talks of arming “to safeguard our peace and to throw back aggression” has been kept busy in the last few years spreading death and destruction in Abyssinia, Spain and Albania, there seems little point in searching among his speeches for' exact meanings. Once again a dictatoi’ has spoken; and once again the world situation remains unchanged. Unfortunately it is only the language of events that conveys an unmistakable truth in Europe today.