IF ITALY SUED FOR PEACE

Southland Times, Issue 24231, 14 September 1940, Page 6

IF ITALY SUED FOR PEACE

GENEROUS TERMS ARE ADVISED NOT AN END IN ITSELF LONDON, September 4. The possibility of Italy being forced by British blows to conclude a separate peace, as suggested in some neutral quarters, is referred to in the principal article on trie war. situation in the current issue of The Nineteenth Century, which remarks that thus would Germany’s defeat be brought much nearer. “The blockade,” the periodical states, “will become much closer, German influence will be destroyed in Spain and reduced iri the Balkans, and it will be possible to establish air bases from which to raid Germany from the south. The. defeat of Italy is an essential preliminary to the defeat of Germany. “A separate peace with Italy is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The sooner that peace is brought about the better, however generous it may be within certain limits so long as Italy ceases to be a belligerent. . “Those limits might be very wide, and should be such that Italy need fear neither economic ruin nor extinction as an imperial Power. A peace should not deprive her of the whole of her oversea empire, and it might embody a general colonial settlement which would found a British, French, and possibly Italian condominium in certain regions to the advantage of all three Powers. “The settlement would have to include certain measures .such ss the cession or at least the neutralization of Pantelaria and the restoration of Albanian independence, but peace should not mean irretrievable disaster to the Italian people. “It should be broadly acceptable as the basis for future community of Mediterranean interests between Lon 7 don, Rome and Paris. “It is essential,” the article continues, “for Britain to achieve the maximum concentration of ships, troops and aeroplanes in the Mediterranean region and to pass from the defensive to. the offensive with as much speed, vigour and resolution as shO can command.” Because his analysis would not hold water if the theory of Italian naval incompetence is accepted, the writer deprecates ' jeering at the Italian Navy and the implication that it can only run away. “Speed,” he adds, “is one of the main components of the strerigth of any fleet and to ‘run away’, is often the rigrit thing to do.”