GOING AHEAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 7

GOING AHEAD

ITALY & HER PEACE CAMPAIGN CONVICTION IN OFFICIAL CIRCLES. MAKING BEST OF BAD BARGAIN. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. NEW YORK, September 27. The Rome correspondent of the "New York Times” says Italy is going ahead with her peace campaign regardless of what England and France say. There is a genuine conviction in high official circles that it is a chance for England and France to make the best of a bad bargain.

Italian statesmen have a high opinion of Germany’s strength and feel that even without the Soviet she is stronger militarily than England and France and will be able to carry on indefinitely. Thus they are appealing over the heads of the French and British Governments to the people. All the Italian correspondents in London and Paris have obviously been instructed to write that the campaign is succeeding. Barring an unprovoked attack, Italy is not going to war against, the Allies. The Vatican City correspondent of the "New York Times” says the Vatican’s friendliness toward President Roosevelt and his neutrality policies is very clearly shown in an editorial in the “Osservatore Romano” comparing the American policies with the Pope’s. It comments: “It is impossible not to perceive the almost literal identity of the essential points.” This enthusiasm is not shared by the Italian Press, some of the more extreme journals attacking the “Osservatore Romano’s” views.

Vatican circles insist that the “Osservatore Romano” is taking the line which all newspapers will follow before long, not only regarding friendliness toward the United States but also antagonism to Russia and sympathy for Poland.