ITALY AND NEIGHBOURS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19788, 11 March 1927, Page 11

ITALY AND NEIGHBOURS

CHANGING INTERESTS RELATIONS WITH FRANCE AND GERMANY. The primary question of Italian policy since the war has been how best to stabilise relations with France and Germany, says the Rome correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.” In official Italian statements the fact of Franco-German reconciliation is accepted and applauded. It must, however, be noted that in press Organs which are closely inspired by the Government there js a strong tendency to mock at, or at least to throw doubts upon the durability of the reconciliation, while such a paper as the “Teverc,” expressing a widespread view with great frankness, denounces the new French policy to Germany as a disgraceful bartering of the moral fruits of victory for the gross material advantages of market agreements. If Franco and Germany are still ultimately considered as rivals in Europe, how does Italy place her weight in the balance? Sh c has taken good care hitherto not to place it decisively in cither scale. Neither France nor Germany has at any moment felt able to count upon outright Italian support; but neither, perhaps, has for any length of time felt that the support could not, for a consideration, be obtained. The truth of this can be illustrated with some reminiscences from the past year. Shifting Friendships. On February 27 Signor Mussolini, still hot from his exchange of speeches with Herr Stresemann and the Austrian Chancellor on the subject of the German minority in Italy, called a correspondent of the “Petit Parisicn ” and, after outlining to him a scheme for the rapid de-Germanisation of the Tyrol, stated:— The menace of Pan-Germanism must be denounced. . . The Germans do not forget, do not forgive, do not abandon their ancient dreams. The German peril must bring Italy and France ever nearer together. Their interests are identical, and they are separated by no great questions. France and Italy in combination can impose peace with their joint block of 80 millions counter-balancing the German block.

The only conditions Signor Mussolini placed were (1) a permanent guarantee to the Italian inhabitants of Tunis for the 1 preservation of their Italian citizenship, (2) the abandonment of antiFascist campaigns in tho Paris press. Was the Duce seriously offering M. Briand an alliance against Germany? For som c months it seemed so, but gradually the Fascist' press and the Duce with it changed the tune altogether. With the signature last month of a treaty of arbitration with Germany, which was described hero, somewhat to the German surprise, as a treaty of amity, the press spoke with the utmost warmth of Germany. Senator Morelli, one of the Ducc’s ablest spoksmen, wrote that no grave or difficult question divided Italy from Germany, while the Naples “Mattino” celebrated the marriage of two ancient and glorious civilisations. The PanGorman peril has been buried in the utmost silence. With tho Pan-German peril forgotten, forgotten too, and in even more striking degree, are tho springtime overtures to France. “The potency of the young Italy is not necessarily ‘directed against France,” writes Coppola. “At present, however, France systematically thwarts Italian aims everywhere in the Balkans, in Abyssinia, in Tan gier, in the Levant.” If France wants Italy’s friendship she must accept the fact of Italian expansion, declares Coppola and “frankly speaking that means territorial expansion,” though not necessarily expansion at France’s expense. An Understanding With Germany. Italo-German interests come into perilous conflict only at two points. The first concerns the German minority in the South Tyrol, and in a Europe full of so many far more difficult and i complicated minority problems this cannot be deemed insoluble. There are al i most a quarter of a million Germanspeaking subjects of the Italian Crown. The policy adopted towards them by the Mussolini Government has been one of ruthless Italianisation. In so far as . this has been simply the expression of crude racial antagonism it must be condemned as deplorable, and a change of spirit alone can bring improvement But undoubtedly the suspicion that , Germany intended toe disput Italy’s ! war-won frontiers and that the assertion of a moral right over the affairs of the Tyrolese formed part of a Pan-German policy of which the “Anschluss” (AystroGerman Union) would be the pillar has also played a large pari in causing the adoption of a harshly anti-German policy in the Tyrol. There is every Lsign that some Kind of an understanding has now been reached, and that in return for reassurances about the general trend of German policy Italy has shown willingness to modify her treatment of her German subjects. The other possible conflict would arise from Germany’s desire to reacquire some colonial possession of those lost in the war . Against this Italy would oppose her own moral priority as a victorious Power. That the two nations intend to co-opcratc rather than compete in the colonial field is, however, at the present moment taken, for granted in. the Italian press. Between Italy and France the occasions for offence are far more numerous and fundamental. There is a legacy of historical hatred which the jom L participation in the world war did nothing to diminish. Indeed, to the old rancours there was added on the Italian side a sense of deep resentment against the neighbouring nation which, having been saved by Italy’s intervention in a war which did not primarily concern her (so the argument runs here), worked hard to deprive her, at the apportionment of tho spoils, of any colonial compensation, and refused to give her tho benefit of a doubt over Fiumc. Add to this tho sense that Franco with her declining population sways vast and, to her, useless and embarrassing territories, while Italy, with her larger, rapidly growing stock is, virtually without any outlet for her population, and the nature of popular Italian sentiment: towards France can be understood. It is, unfortunately, true beyond any dmiU' tho new generation of Italians is growing up V.iui .... war -with France in the more or less near future is inevitable.