ITALY ADAMANT

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 188, 17 August 1935, Page 2

ITALY ADAMANT

Is General Conviction

disregard of treaties BRITAIN OPPOSED TO FORCE Ry Telegraph—Copyright—Press Assn. LONDON, August 16. “The Times” Rome correspondent says that the general conviction is that the Paris negotiations will not j bring the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia an inch nearer the solution desired by Italy. Italy’s expansionist plans in East Africa, it is held, can only be fulfilled by military operations. Italy hopes to prove at Paris that her claims and grievances j against Abyssinia are sound and fully justify the action she intends to take once and for all regarding the Abyssinian question. She hopes to convince France and Britain that existing treaties do not prevent her securing by her own means the rights given her in previous agreements, but whether her viewpoint be accepted or not Italy is unlikely to retreat from the position she has taken up. “The Times” Paris correspondent says that the tripartite negotiations are expected to be difficult in the extreme. The British delegates will do their utmost to smooth the path of conciliation by every means in their power. They will keep before them ) the fundamental principles of peace I and fair dealing between nations, and will neglect no opportunity to put forward any suggestion giving satisfaction to Italy and Abyssinia alike. They recognise that something more than purely economic concessions will be needed to effect a settlement. They may approve plans for settlement provided that the independence of Abyssinia is maintained, but they will not be parties to

any attempt to exert pressure on Abyssinia or accept a “ready-made settlement” without the opportunity of discussing it fully with the European Powers concerned. The essential basis of the British attitude is that Italian conquest of Abyssinia by force of arms, involving wilful disregard of several treaties and ruthless aggression by one member of the League upon another, cannot be approved in any circumstances and must, if undertaken, set in motion procedure laid down by the Covenant.

The “Daily Mail’s'’ Paris correspondent declares that the Ethiopian conference has created differences of opinion not only between Britain and Italy but between England and .France. M. Laval declines to quarrel with Italy on the colonial question, in which France believes Italy is 90 per cent, right. Italy is unlikely to adopt Britain's suggestion that she should content herself with purely economic advantages in Abyssinia. ABYSSINIA’S NORTHERN ARMY LESS THAN HALF A MILLION PARIS, August 15. The Havas news agency at Addis Ababa estimates that Abyssinia’s northern army numbers 425,00. CONSUL’S COURIER SLAPPED INCIDENT STRONGLY RESENTED DJIBOUTI, August 15. The Italians intensely resent an Abyssinian railway official’s attack on Signor Renate Mecenate, consul at Djibouti, at the Diredawa station. The consul’s courier transgressed the regulations by loading luggage through a carriage window. A guard objected, and the courier was slapped and kicked. He retaliated with a stick.