IS IT WAR?

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 7

IS IT WAR?

ITALIANS’ STAND NO FAITH IN LEAGUE ARMS ONLY SOLUTION PROSPECTS AT LEAGUE BRITISH PEACE EFFORTS By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 7.40 p.m. .. London, Aug. 16. The general conviction at Rome is that the negotiations at Paris will not bring the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia an inch nearer the solution desired by Italy, says the correspondent of the Times at Rome. . Italy’s expansionist plans in East Africa, it is held, can be fulfilled only by military operations. Italy hopes to prove at Paris that her, claims and grievances against Abyssinia are sound and fully justify the action she intends to take once and for all regarding the Abyssinian question. Italy-hopes to convince. France and Britain that the existing treaties do not prevent her -securing by her own means the rights .given her in previous agreements, but whether, her viewpoint be accepted or not Italy is unlikely to retreat from the position she has taken up. The Paris correspondent of the Times says the tripartite negotiations are expected to be difficult in the extreme. The British delegates will do their utmost to smooth the path of conciliation by every means in their power. They will keep before them the fundamental principles of peace and fair dealing between nations, and will neglect no opportunity to put forward any suggestion giving satisfaction to Italy and Abyssinia alike. They recognise that something more than purely economic concessions will be needed to effect a settlement. They may approve plans for a settlement provided the independence of Abyssinia is maintained, but they will not be parties to any attempt to exert pressure on Abyssinia to accept a “ready-made settlement” without the opportunity of discussing it fully with the European Powers concerned. THE BRITISH ATTITUDE. The essential basis of the British attitude is that the Italian conquest of Abyssinia by force of arms, involving the wilful disregard, of several treaties and ruthless aggression by one member of the League of Nations upon another cannot be approved in any Circumstances and must, if undertaken, set in motion the procedure laid down by the Covenant. . . The Abyssinian Emperor declines to define his attitude regarding the tripartite discussions at Paris, says the Addis Ababa correspondent of the Times. He feels that if he prematurely disclosed his policy he might be criticised for not going far enough to meet Italy’s unjust and violent claims. It was announced in Paris that the three-Power conversations on the dispute would definitely begin to-morrow. To-day M. Laval had a conversation lasting for an hour and a-half with- Baron Aloisi. There was a further conversation between M. Laval, Mr. Eden and Sir Robert Vansittart, Foreign Under-Secre-tary, during which it is understood the French Prime Minister communicated to the British delegates the substance of his conversation With Baron Aloisi. The Daily Telegraph’s Paris correspondent says that M. Laval informed Baron Aloisi of Britain’s grave View of the consequences of an Italian invasion of Abyssinia. The Daily Mail's Paris correspondent declares that the conference has created differences of opinion not only between Britain and Italy, but also between Britain and France. M. Laval declines to quarrel with Italy on a colonial question in which France believes that Italy is 90 per cent, right. Italy is unlikely to adopt Britain’s suggestion that she should content herself with purely economic advantages in Abyssinia. The Havas News Agency at Addis Ababa estimates that Abyssinia’s northern army numbers 425,000. A League of Nations report shows that Abyssinia is constructing roads in Jina, Dessai and Jihur and is developing airports at Akaki and elsewhere. The International Council of the Friends of Ethiopia, writing from Harlem (New York) on behalf of American negroes, urges the League to safeguard Abyssinia on the grounds of human duty and sacred honour. A Djibouti (French Somaliland) message says that the Italians intensely resent an Abyssinian railway official’s attack on Signor Renate Mecenate, consul at Djibouti, at the Diredawa station. The consul’s courier transgressed the regulations by loading luggage through a carriage window. The guard objected and the courier was slapped and kicked. He retaliated with his stick. GRAVE RESPONSIBILITIES WHAT WOULD CANADA DO? By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Rec. 8 p.m. London (Ontario), Aug. 16. Criticising the Government for the late election date, Mr. Mackenzie King declared the Ethiopian crisis contained the seeds of world war and that no Government had any right to say what Canada would do with respect to war arising out of that situation until there was a new Parliament and a new Government. * If the grave responsibility ever fell on a Liberal Government of deciding on war in Europe no decision would be made until Parliament had assembled.