THE CASE IS WEAK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3756, 15 May 1936, Page 4

THE CASE IS WEAK

UNITED STATES AND NEUTRALITY. “ So far as the economic dispute between the League and Italy is concerned America’s policy will be governed by the determination, never more firmly cherished than now, to avoid European entanglements,” says the London Daily Telegraph. “ Her aim will be to maintain neutrality, but what in this connection, is neutrality? If America accepts Italy’s oil orders, she will be accused of hostility to the League. If she rations Italy’s supplies, limiting them, say, to their 1934 level, she will be accused of hostility to Italy. The question which the League’s members have now to decide is whether it is prudent to confront the United States with this dilemma. They will remember that their task is to make the League work as it is, with Great Powers outside it, and they will do well to take no step which will bring them up against the very obstacles that a wise diplomacy would circumvent. In view of the quantities of oil which Italy has acquired during the last few months, the case for oil sanctions is weak when considered on its immediate practicality. When account is taken of its wider repercussions, the balance inclines against it.”