The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1935. STILL UNCERTAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 22143, 25 September 1935, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1935. STILL UNCERTAIN.

The position in regard to Abyssinia continues unchanged. One or two developments within .the last few daj s offer a slight hope that the deadlock mav yet be solved, if not without war, without a war that will extend further than Abyssinia. It is a good auguiy when the parties between whom a state of high tension has been reached begin explaining to each other that their actions do not mean so much as appearances would suggest. The British Government has caused relief in Italy by its announcement that the movements of British warships in the Mediterranean do not signify any aggressive intentions. Similarly the Italian Government explains that Italian military preparations are pusely precautionary; amicable discussions are not meant to be ended. Also it is impressed that Italian so-called “counter-pro-posals ” to the committee’s report, which, by the extreme nature of their demands, would have left no use in a continuance of discussions, were really much less than that. There is hope in the situation while Mussolini continues to negotiate, though the fact that the minimum that he desires is an Italian predominance in Abyssinia, which could never accord with justice, reduces the hope to the the, slightest proportions. The Italian faith seems fo be that, if the worst comes to the worst, the Council of the League of Nations will be unable to agree with the unanimity that is required to such an extreme step as military sanctions, and that economic sanctions, if they arc imposed, will be too late to hamper a campaign in Ethiopia at least for some time to come. Only a long campaign would be likely to give Mussolini the triumph he desires in Abyssinia, but a very short one might produce results, which it might be hoped would enable him to extort new terms from that country, sufficient to save his face. The discussion will henceforward be with the Council of the League. Suggestions of II Dime being overwhelmed, and almost beside himself, in this “ too great hour of his fate” do - not square with the report, welcome on general grounds, that the British Ambassador, Sir Eric Drummond, had a “ particularly pleasant ” hour’s talk with him. It is old experience, however, that

Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous drealn. The genius and the mortal instruments Are then in council; and the state of man Like to a little kingdom, suiters then The nature of an insurrection.

The state of mind of the Dictator, torn between his knowledge of the consequences that his acts may produce and the pressure of those influences, set in train by himself, which he probably imagines to be his destiny, is not likely to be an enviable one at this juncture. Even a war that might be limited to Abyssinia would be no pleasant prospect to survey. A traveller describes Massawa, the port of disembarkation in Eritrea, “ one of the hottest cities in the world,” as the home of 15,000 natives and a few hundred Europeans. “ The white men, mostly Italians, work during the day in their offices under big fans, with glasses of cool water on their desks. In a damp and steamy air they toil with a mean temperature for July of 94cleg Fahrenheit, 20deg hotter than the average for the hottest month in New York.” The harbour of Massawa is the only place in Eritrea where large ships can tie up at docks to discharge their passengers and cargo, but it cannot be much suited for -the landing and first accommodation of an army. Asmara, the new capital of the colony, standing B,oooft higher, is described as a town of 22,000 inhabitants, of whom 3,000 are Europeans. The total population of Eritrea consists normally of 617,000 nati%-cs and 4,600 white residents. In Ethiopia there are two seasons —a heavy rainy season lasting from June until the end of September and a dry season for the remaining eight months. It is impossible to travel except in the dry season. “ When the terrain is dry mules can surmount almost any obstacle. When it is wet going the mules tire, or get mired, and there is nothing to do except, as the guides say, ‘ Leave it to God.’”

Have the Italians the patience for such campaigning? The latest writer —an Italian—on their part in the last war would not doubt that they have. In that struggle they fought eleven “ Battles of the Isonzo,” equivalent to Battles of the Somme, battering against a wall with little but the bruises to show for those heroic efforts, before their morale failed at Caporetto. And, by themselves, they had recovered their morale and brought the enemy’s advance to a standstill before any of the Allied reinforcements arrived to assist them. The record may be one of pride to-day, but it is strange if it should make any inducement to a new battering against stone walls.