AXIS TO GRIND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 234, 6 November 1940, Page 4

AXIS TO GRIND

ITALIAN plans in the south Balkan peninsula appear to have gone somewhat awry. Mussolini attempting to emulate the. grancloise methods of Adolph Hitler in his lightning invasion of unsuspecting and weaker neighbours has meet his first Greek with rather disturbing results. The little act of bludgeoning the small states into submission by a policy of intimidation has gone just a little, astray and the quick walkover which appeared to be so simple to the armed Italian bully has resolved itself into a stalemate on the Greek border from the first fitful attack. The belief that Great Britain was too involved already to spare any help for the beleaguered country was another grave miscalculation for already the fighting forces of the Empire are mustering on the island of Crete, which will probably be made the base of operations. The sting of mortification must be Italy's portion after all the loud-mouthed boasting of her armed might and the prowess of her air force. A little review of her history supplies the answer. All Italian gains since the close of the Great War (in which she was an uncertain ally to the Franco-British cause) have been at the expense of weaker nations, campaigns at which the world winked at the time in dread of provoking wider hostilities. If any act should exerdise the world conscience., it should be the brutal conquest of Abyssinia which tens of thousands of ill-armed blacks were bombed and gassed by the pitiless airmen of II Duce. Again without declaration of any kind the unsuspecting state of Albania was invaded on Good Friday, 1938. Both these Annexations snd the comparative ease of their acquisition have led: the Italians, bolstered of course by the blatherskite of their dictator to assume themselves invincible. A speedy reversal of opinion must follow the venture into Greece where the Axis prestige is already suffering heavily as a result of the sturdy fight put up by the Balkan, mountaineers. What will happen when the full force of organised British assistance is felt is another story a,nd in the meantime the world stands in admiration of the little country, which is strong enough to resist the aggressor and bold enough to give blow for blow by setting up a counter invasion.