“Taranaki Central Press” MONDAY, MAY 10, 1937. GERMANY AND ITALY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 429, 10 May 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” MONDAY, MAY 10, 1937. GERMANY AND ITALY

Italian policy is the great mystery of the European situation.

It is natural that Italy and Germany, with a common form of government, should find themselves in sympathy on major issues, at least in their opposition to Communism, but they are rivals in Central Europe, and it has been said by a shrewd Italian diplomat that if Mussolini walks arm-in-arm with Hitler it is because he hopes to prevent Hitler from running amuck.

It is this view of the situation in Rome which discounts the reports of a military accord between the two countries. It is stated officially about the conversations of the German Foreign Minister with Signor Mussolini that Italy and Germany will follow a concordant policy on all major questions, but it is unwise to conclude that Italy will consent to German plans for a Ger-man-Austrian union. These two isolationist countries have already been in agreement to a very dangerous extent, and were obviously working together in producing a state of anarchy in Spain; but both countries coveted the promised naval stations in the Balearic Islands, the mineral concessions in Spain and Morocco, and the commercial and colonial settlements in Spanish north-west Africa which were to be part of the loot. And the fact that things have not worked out to plan in Spain does not lend colour to an immediate agreement regarding other spheres of influence.

Italy is almost equally interested in the Mediterranean and the Danube basin, and might abandon one interest to Germany for support in the other. But this is hardly believable, because German expansion down the Danube to the shores of the eastern Mediterranean reviving memories of a projected Imperial road to Bagdad would not be agreeable to Italy, and least of all for its introduction of a German rival to Italian influence in the Balkans.

The cablegrams, as always, must be read with caution, especially as they do not seem to offer to Italy the realisation of that peace which her people are demanding, and which was obviously at the back of the gentlemen’s agreement with Britain in the Mediterranean.