MUSSOLINI SHOWS HIS HAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 13 (Supplement)

MUSSOLINI SHOWS HIS HAND

The summary dismissals of five Itali 11 “Ministers, including Signor Nino Grandi, the Foreign Minister, one of the youngest and most promising diplomats of the world, is a forceful reminder that the will of Mussolini still rules Italy. The Duce is succeeding to the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, thus disposing effectively of the official explanation that the changes are periodical ones to provide new men with opportunities. An explanation that will be more readily accepted is that which states that Mussolini has been disappointed at Grandi’s failure to secure a 44 clean slate” at the Lausanne Conference on war debts and reparations. In the light of these sensational changes in Italy it is significant that economic hostilities have begun between Italy and France. French Radical opinion, on doctrinal grounds, has desired to have as little as possible to do with Italy under the Dictatorship. On the other hand, the French parties of the Right claim that Italy has taken the lead in European movements to which France is opposed—such as the revision of treaties, equality of rights in armaments, and a “clean slate” in repara-

tions. In Central Europe, it is claimed that Italy has made itself the centre various combinations which France J* finds diplomatically undesirable. These arc some of the immediate causes of French dislike of Italy, while Mussolini is disturbed by France’s greed and her desire to weave a financial web round Central Europe, and sees in France’s obduracy at Lausanne another turn of the screw on Germany. The Duce demanded the cancellation of reparations and is bitterly disappointed at the compromise reached. The manifestation of this displeasure by the dismissal of Grandi is the first rift in the lute since Lausanne. These happenings, together with the economic hostility between the two countries, are most ill-timed, coming as they do when the Disarmament Conference is just getting into its stride. The appearance of Mussolini in person at Geneva will bring a new and powerful force into international diplomacy and the result will be awaited with interest.—Taranaki Herald.