WARNING TO ITALY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 163, 10 June 1940, Page 6

WARNING TO ITALY.

There is little in the news from Italy to suggest that the policy of non-belligerency will be maintained much longer. Indeed, from the bellicose utterances of responsible leaders it appears to have run its course and intervention on the side of Germany—it can hardly be hoped that the master who later became subservient to his pupil will fight against the Fuehrer—may be a matter of a few days only. The fact that parts of the Italian coast have been mined and Italy’s seagoing ships have been instructed to seek a safe haven hTneutral ports where they cannot reach their home shores immediately seems an ominous warning of events ahead. It may be presumed that Signor Mussolini has weighed the consequences of intervention on Germany’s behalf and indifference to all the requests of His Holiness the Pope and Mr Roosevelt to maintain a neutral attitude. Imperialistic ambition only can influence Italy to enter the war against the Allies, the hope that she will become the great Power of the Mediterranean with an extensive African Empire and dominating most of the countries washed by its waters. The dream is futile and can only lead to an impoverished Italy, whose adventures in Abyssinia placed so stupendous a burden upon the nation. It may be hoped that the blunt warning given by Moscow that Russia will intervene if her security in the Balkans is threatened will be a powerful deterrent. “Italy will do well to realise this,” the announcer said, and what could be more plainly,indicated? At this moment it is significant that the relations between Russia and Turkey have shown a marked improvement, and Yugoslavia, the Servia of the Great War to whose assistance Russia came in 1914 when threatened with annihilation by Germany and Austria, is once again assured of Russian help if Italy acts aggressively in the Balkans. The situation has become so serious in the Mediterranean that zero hour for Italy’s entrance into the war is believed to have been set, but the Allies are ready for eventualities. <