NEW NOTE FROM MUSSOLINI.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 1, 24 September 1937, Page 4

NEW NOTE FROM MUSSOLINI.

It may be as a result of the practical demonstration on a large scale given by Japan of the revolting horrors attending modern warfare that there would appear to be some greater disposition now shown by those who have hitherto held the threaf of it over Europe to co-operate with those who have for years been striving to establish conditions calculated to avert it. At any rate, some such thought as this is prompted by the very marked change in the tone of Signor Mussolini's latest communication regarding the position in Spain and in the Mediterranean. In the first place, he is reported as being prepared to give guarantees that Italy would not seek to maintain any footing in the Balearic Islands or indeed, on the Spanish mainland. This has been accompanied by a defmite promise that no further Italian troops would be sent to the assistance of the Spanish insurgents. At the same time, too, he has indicated his willingness to discuss with Great Britain and France participation in the scheme of naval patrol against submarine piracy ii the Mediterranean. Moreover, and perhaps most signifkant of all, he is maintaining touch with the League of Nations. On the face of things and giving in a sincerity of purpose in these advances, there is a fair show of hopefulness in this change of attitude from one of boastful threatening. There are, of course to be considered the conditions precedent for which Signor Mussolini is said to stipulate. The first of these is the recognition of Italy' s annexation of Abyssinia. This is undoubtedly something that will go very much against the grain so far as Great Britain is concerned. At the same time, however, the annexation is very much of an accomplished fact,, which only a war of unforeseealble magnitude'c^d consequences is at all likely to disturb. On the other hand, the very fact that Signor Mussolini places such great stress on the point of formal recognition indicates a realisation on his part of the value to film of the League's concurrence. The practical question at issue seems therefore to be one of formal recognition or the maintenance of a position from which war will have every chance of arising at some future date. That is the simple way of putting it, though of course there are a number of collateral considerations that will have to be taken into account by far-seeing statesmen. As for the "equality of rights" in the Mediterranean, of which mention is also made, that is a question of defining the interpretation sought to be put upon the phrase. It is, however, a quite different thing from the position of virtual domination which Signor Mussolini has heretofore been seeking to establish. As has been said before, the main point is that Signor Mussolini would appear to be showing some inclination towards the principle of "collective security" for which Great Britain has for so long been contending. Unfortunately, there must, of course, be some suspicion as to what ulterior motive the Italian dictator may have behind the relatively conciliatory and pacific attitude he is now adopting — one, too, which can scarcely be altogether palatafcle to hi$ fellow dictator at Berlin, to whom the idea of collective security has hitherto been quite unacaeptable. Indeed, the suggestion is already being made that Signor Mussolini's apparently friendly approach to the League is merely a preliminary diplomatic move designed to make Herr Hitler, at their meeting next week, a little more compliant to his wishes regarding matters in which their interests do not altogether coalesce.