WAR INEVITABLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 196, 22 August 1935, Page 7

WAR INEVITABLE

FRENCH PRESS OPINION . IF BRITAIN FAILS LEAGUE [By Telegraph—Pxvss Association—Copyright] LONDON, Aug. 20. In \icw of the early meeting of Cabinet, London is the centre of diplomatic interest and developments are anxiously awaited. The French Press assumes that war is inevitable. Signor Mussolini does not show the faintest tendency to waver, and has accepted as volunteers for active service Signor Achille Starace, secretary uf the Fascist Party, nd nine members of the directorate. Meanwhile malaria and dysentery take toll of the Italian troops in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. A thousand of the worst sufferers are being transported back to Italy each week, while the Duce continues to hurl men and weapons into the threatened zone. The Daily Alaii reiterates its arguments against Britain remaining the wnipping boy of Geneva. The Chronicle, on the hand, do ’ clares that if England fails to shoulder her responsibility under the League Covenant to prevent Italy invading Abyssinia, this following the League’s failure to protect China, will demonstrate its valuelessness in restraining any Power from going to war against a weak League member. This means chat Italy could not expect League assistance if Herr Hitler’s legions marched to the Brenner Pass. The consequences for Franco, menaced by an armed Germany, would be almost as serious, while if Britain failed in her loyalty to the League the whole system of collective security would collapse. ODDS-ON FOR WAR LLOYD’S BETTING FURTHER BISKS REFUSED LONDON, Aug. 20. Lloyd’s betting is odds-on that there will be an Ilalo-Ethiopian conflict, and the underwriters are refusing further insurances against war risks. HOLIDAYS BROKEN MINISTERS BACK TO LONDON COMING CABINET MEETING [ British Official Wireieai. ] Received Aug. 21, 5.5 jj.m, RUGBY, Aug. 20. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, is leaving Aix Les Bains, where he arrived two days age on holiday, and will reach London to-morrow. This afternoon Mr. Baldwin saw Sir Robert Vansittarr. Permanent Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, who reported on the Paris conversations. Mr. Baldwin will preside at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, for which Ministers are returning to London from ,the country. Mr. Neville Chamberlain and Mr. Walter Elliott, like the Prime Minister, are interrupting their holidays abroad. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald left Lossio mouth for London to-day. Ho has cancelled all engagements for a period c-f a week. On his return to Scotland he will visit Balmoral Castle. The Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, and the Minister for League of Nations Affairs, Mr. Anthony Eden, conferred both tins morning and this afternoon and also saw Sir Austen Chamberlain and Mr. S. M. Bruce, High Commissioner for Australia, who has represented Australia at many meetings of the League, when they visited the Foreign Office. Mr. Eden informed them of what had occurred at the Three-Power Conference in' Paris. THE FIFTH ARBITRATOR M. -POLITIS, OF GREECE I British Official Wlreleu.] Received Aug. 21, 5.5 p.m. RUGBY, Aug. 20. A Paris message states that the Italo-Abyssinian Commission of Conciliation and Arbitration met there today, and unanimously agreed to the appointment as the fifth arbitrator of M. Nicholas Politis, Greek Minister in Paris, a jurist uf international reputation who has taken an active part in League affairs since its inception. M. Politis has accepted the appointment, and the Commission will resunre its hearings on the Walwal incident as soon as possible. RAINS CEASING EAST AFRICAN REPORT ITALY SPEEDING UP WAR MACHINE. Received Aug. 21, 9.50 p.m. LONDON. Aug. 21. The News-Chronicle’sc Rome correspondent says that, following reports from East Africa that the rains are ceasing, ;Signor .Mussolini has ordered the intensification of military preparations. Ten thousand troops are sailing from Naples this week in fifteen reconditioned liners, which were recently bought for breaking-up from England, Canada, United States and Germany. The Daily Telegraph’s Rome correspondent says that, it is estimated that by the end of September Italy will have 1000 aeroplanes.