ITALY ANNOYED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 494, 25 October 1928, Page 9

ITALY ANNOYED

PRESS ATTACKS FRANCE COMPROMISE FAILURE (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) ( United Service) LONDON, Wednesday. Dispatches from Rome state that while Press critics in London are attacking the British Government for Its lack of frankness about this concession as regards military reserves, the newspaper “Giornale aTtalia” is attacking France for the same reason. It says Italy divined the fact that the Anglo-French compromise included a military agreement. The Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Signor Dino Grandi, asked the French Afnbassador, M. Beaumarchais, on August 3, a point-blank question on the subject, but the latter failed to give a direct answei It was not until September 2? that Italy learned the true position. The paper accuses France of trying to keep Italy in the dark, but its criticism is directed against her diplomatic methods rather than to the substance of the agreement about reserves. In that matter Italy, with her trained reserves, sides with France.

The diplomatic correspondent of the “Morning Post” says he understands the British Government considers itself bound by its promise to France to acquiesce in the exclusion of trained reservists from estimates of fighting forces. He says this does not Impose an obligation on any future Government.