BELLIGERENT ITdALY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 172, 12 June 1940, Page 4

BELLIGERENT ITdALY

THE twin' dictatorships of Europe are now linked in the prosecution of a war which bids fair to outclass and outrange, in extent, intensity and .barbarism even the colossalghastliness of twenty five years ago. Italy the erstwhile ally of the Democracies has now joined forces with the Nazi menace which threatens to engulf the world. Mussolini s pronouncement, though it did not come as a surprise,, was nevertheless a rude awakening to those who pinned their faith in the influence of the Vatican upon a nation of Christian devotees. The Dictator has however been champing the head of an armed people too long to listen to the pleas for peace from the Head of the Catholic world. In these maddening days all ethics, morals and creeds are jettisoned in the intoxication of power and the lust to wield the armed might of a disciplined and subservient people aga,inst the forces of freedom and peace. II Duce, the man who lifted,, his country from the chaos following the last war, has become drunk with his own power and without cause or provocation has elected to become our enemy. From babyhood he has infused his subjects with the ideals of Fascism. For years the massed parades of the blatckshfrted militia have* raised their united voices in the cry ''We want to die for our Fatherland.." It will not become jus to underestimate the power of a nation armed to the teeth and in possession of a great air force and a growing navy, but we may rest assured that our military heads will have long planned, a strategic action calculated to effectively meet the new situation. The combined forces of the Franco-British Mediterranean Fleets will swing immediately into action against the Italian Navy which whether seeking direct sea battle or merely convoy duties should not prove a very formidable foe. In the event of a planned invasion the waiting armies in Egypt can be relied, upon to give a good account of themselves. In the coming battle we can expect to find our own boys given their first baptism o(f fire, and tin them we have the utmost faith. . The reserve French army numbering 1,500,000 men on the FrancoItalian border will be ready and waiting for an attack. The broad outlook-is therefore one of preparedness and the Italian army will be tested in the coming conflict .in a manner which will bring home to it, the fact that the conquests of Abyssinia and Albania were child's play by comparison. The new turn of events, distasteful though it is has expanded the giant heart of freedom-loving peoples and strengthened to an amazing degree theiir dogged and determined will to win.