The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1928. FRANCE AND ITALY.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1928, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1928. FRANCE AND ITALY.

Thu interview with M. Poincare which a. British journalist has just reported is. say an Auckland paper, likely to shook and depress those who believe that international peace is 1 already firmly established in Europe. The French War Minister has acquired an

international reputation for plain speaking, and also for an aggressive temperament which he possibly does not deserve. But the plain facts as he has stated them are enough in themselves to arouse a certain amount of anxiety about the present and future relations of Italy and France. M. Poincare says definitely that,' as Italy has virtually challenged France to a competition in the fortification of their joint frontier, France is determined to keep pace with her, and is prepared to lay gun for gun with her, “all the way from the Mediterranean to Mount Blanc.” No doubt when the new settlement' of Europe was arranged at Versailles in 1919 Italy had some excuse for feeling aggrieved at the failure of the Powers to pay her the full promised price of her intervention in terms of the Secret Pact of London. But this was not France’s fault, and if no other cause of friction had arisen there was no- obvious reason why these two close neighbours should not have remained allies and friends. But the Italian Government—which is to say Mussolini— first found cause for offence in the free criticism to> which the Fascist dictatorship was subjected by the French Republican Press, and the efforts of the Fascists to implicate France in the many conspiracies against the Duce naturally aroused bitterness and resentment on both sides of the frontier 1 . To Fascism more than any other °imiThGcl i-ate cause 'fcli-e present precarious state of the relations between Italy and France in distinctly due. There are, of course, many other reasons for rivalry, and even antagonism, between the two countries. Though the Italians have to thank Napoleon 111. for helping them to drive out the Austrians, they never forgave him for exacting the cession of Nice and Savoy when the work of liberation was still unfinished. After 1871 Bismarck deliberately encouraged France to seek compensation in Northern Africa for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and France accordingly occupied Tunis. But Italy, desiring oversea colonies, had regarded Tunis as her own prospective possession, and it was her disappointment, skilfully exploited by Bismarck, that induced her to join the Triple Alliance. In spite of all this. France and Italy fought side by side against the Central Powers during the Great War. But Fascism, with its aggressive foreign policy and its loud-mouthed threats and warnings directed to all who may venture to withstand its will, has driven the nations further and further apart,-and it is primarily responsible for the critical situation that has now arisen, in Southern Europe.