The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, MAY 4. 1938. HITLER’S ROME VISIT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 103, 4 May 1938, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, MAY 4. 1938. HITLER’S ROME VISIT

visit of Adolf Hitler to Rome will rank as one of the most singular of visits to the Eternal City. Hitler is going to Rome at the request of a disgruntled host; he is going there only after the most elaborate precautions have been taken; he is going there to be ignored by His Holiness the Pope; and he is going there without any goodwill from the populace. Such a state of affairs is deplorable. Italy will therefore he compelled to stage a “ welcome” to the unwelcome guest. Concurrently with arrangements being made for the reception of lhe Fuhrer. negotiations are being concluded with the United Kingdom which shall increase the bargaining strength of the Duee. This is a first essential for Mussolini, for the first principle of hi:: foreign policy is to make his country either a nuisance, or a potential nuisance, to those with whom ho finds himself in negotiation. He created a first-class nuisance for the United Kingdom by anl i-British and anti-Jewish propaganda in Palestine, and anti-British activity in Egypt. The adventure in Spain is to a great degree the creation of a nuisance. The abatement of nuisances can he ordered by the courts within a country, but seeing that there are no international courts nor international concepts of law recognisable by such outlaw administrations as that of Fascist Italy, the abatement of nuisances can only be secured either by threats or by providing a quid pro quo. The latter is the method adopted by Mr. Neville Chamberlain, but it may be doubted whether Hitler will be as easy to handle. Mussolini dislikes Hitler, and dislike, where a Eat in is concerned, is not the mild antipathy which that term registers with the more phlegmatic races-, it amounts, too often, to a hate. As Anthony Eden remarked of Mussolini, “the fellow is no gentleman,” and when one who is “no gentleman” seeks to bargain he wants to be in a position to bully. The concluding of an agreement with Mr. Chamberlain does not strengthen Mhissolini’s hand to any great extent: it offers an opening for him to liquidate what might be termed the liabilities of his nuisance-creating policy against Great Britain. Further than that he cannot go at the moment, because he does not ■want to increase his liabilities in Central Europe. Hitler goes to Rome holding most of the trump cards. He has, up to now. benefited by Mussolini’s nuisance policy, having exploited for Germany’s benefit every Italian-made crisis. Germany, having reaped the fruits of Mussolini’s sowing, will not readily forego the use of such an instrument as Italy has proved itself to he up to now. The Rome-Berlin axis has been a splendid thing—for Germany. It has provided an Italian catspaw to withdraw the political chestnuts from the fire. Hitler wants to keep it. What can he offer to Mussolini? With what alternatives can Alussolini threaten Germany? The only threat with which he can face up to Hitler is to break the Rome-Berlin axis, in ■which case the former must be. prepared to face trouble in the Southern Tyrol. Hitler, however, knows that Mussolini is unprepared for such an eventuality, and Mussolini knows he knows it. rhe Hitler-Mussolini meeting will be interesting because neither t rusts the other, each is seeking to use the other, and both are unwilling to break a connection in which neither of them has any confidence. It is certainly more difficult for dictators to deal with each other than it is for democracies—ah their faults—to dn sn