BRITAIN AND ITALY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 153, 2 December 1938, Page 11

BRITAIN AND ITALY

EFFECTS OF NEW-PACT

WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE

The first step.- after Parliament's approval of the bringing into force of the • Anglo-Italian Agreement, will be for Lord Perth, British Ambassador in Rome, to receive fresh credentials accrediting him. to the King of Italy as Emperor of Abyssinia, wrote the diplomatic correspondent of "The Times" on November 3. Having presented .these credentials, he will sign with Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, a declaration to the effect that the Agreement has come into force. These formalities are likely to be completed by the middle of this month. After the Agreement the annexes to the Protocol of April 16, 1937, come into force, which reaffirmed the Declaration between Great Britain and Italy of January 2, 1937, and the Notes exchanged on December 31, 1936. In the Declaration the two Governments disclaimed any desire to modify or see modified the status quo as regards the national sovereignty of territories in the Mediterranean area. The Notes contained an Italian assurance that so far as Italy was concerned the integrity of the present territories of Spain should in all circumstances remain intact and unmodified. INDEPENDENCE OF ARABIA. Arrangements will also be made, immediately or in January,"" for an exchange of military information between the two Governments. Agreements will come into effect regulating relations in regard to certain areas in the Middle East. The two Governments will undertake to respect the independence and integrity of Saudi Arabia and the Yemen, and to refrain from fortifying or establishing their sovereignty over certain islands of strategical importance in the Red Sea. Italy will state that she will not seek any political influence in a zone of Arabia lying south and east of Saudi Arabia and the Yemen, in return for certain undertakings by the United Kingdom concerning the autonomy of tribes and rulers under their protection in that zone. One of the most important steps towards a permanent improvement of relations between the two countries will be a joint undertaking that any attempt to employ propaganda against one another would be inconsistent with the aims of the Agreement. The Agreement will confer the immediate practical advantage of enabling various questions of trade and frontiers between Italian East Africa and British territory in and outside Africa to be regulated. OTHER ASSURANCES. Certain assurances will also come into force concerning Lake Tana, and the free exercise of religion and the treatment of British religious bodies in Italian East Africa. The Italian Government will reaffirm their undertaking that nationals of Italian East Africa should not be compelled to undertake military duties other than local policing and territorial defence. As soon as the Agreement has come into force the Italian Government will, in accordance with their Note of April 16, accede to the 1936 London Naval Treaty. This will provide for an exchange of naval information between the two Governments. Japan would then be the only Great Power which .had not acceded to the Treaty. The coming into force of the Agreement ;s valued less for what it can achieve immediately than as a start towards putting Great Britain and Italy on a footing of friendship.