ITALIAN ASPIRATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 1, 2 January 1936, Page 9

ITALIAN ASPIRATIONS

INFLUENCE IN 'EGYPT

After an absence of seven years Mr. C. ,B. Worsley has returned from abroad on a visit to the Dominion, states the "New Zealand Herald." He has lived in various countries during that period, and some of his most interesting experiences have been gained during stays in Italy and in Egypt. He is definitely of opinion that Italian influence is behind a good deal of the unrest in Egypt today.

Mr. Worsley qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist in New Zealand in 1928, and then obeyed an urge to see the world. After spending eighteen months in a retail pharmacy in Melbourne, he went on to England and worked in a retail chemist's shop in London for six months. He then secured a position in a similar business in San Remo, where he lived from November, 1930, to May, 1931. Both the manager and his son were very ardent Fascists, and Mr. Worsley, who soon acquired a working knowledge of the language, was able to gain an insight into the typical Italian point of view.

"In Italy," Mr. Worsley said, "they make no secret of their intention to stop at nothing to. achieve their ambitions. ■ They want to recover the old Roman empire and. however ridiculous and far-fetched that may seem to us, there is no doubt that they take is very seriously."

After spending two years in managing a chemist's shop in London, Mr. Worsley accepted his present position as agent for a British firm of manufacturing chemists, commissioned to arrange for the distribution of its products throughout the Empire. His work took him at the beginning of this year to Malta, Egypt, Palestine, and Cyprus, He spent the best part of four months in Egypt and Palestine. There was no open rioting while he was in Egypt, but there was a general feeling of dissatisfaction that could be sensed. The Italians with whom he came in contact there did not seem to be at all favourable to Britain, and he could not help feeling that they were at the back of much of the discontent.

An Italian sphere of influence over Egypt would, of course, fit in perfectly with the national ambition to possess a great empire stretching over the north and east of Africa.