ANGLO-ITALIAN RELATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 73, 13 August 1912, Page 6

ANGLO-ITALIAN RELATIONS

HOW THEY NOW STAND. ITALY AS BRITAIN'S POSSIBLE ENEMY. Paris, August 5. Gabriele D'Annunizo, the Italian poet, novelist and dramatist, was interviewed to-day on the question raised by Mr. Winston's Churchill's guarded hint that in certain circumstances Britain might have to count with the Italian fleet as an enemy. The famous author said it was undeniable that the official relations between England and Italy were friendly, but that public sentiment in his country had undergone a change towards Britain as a result of the "malevolent, mendacious and contemptible action of British newspapers in connection with the so-called atrocities in Tripoli, which has infuriated all Italy, as Italians were accustomed to consider Britain their friend."

The prolongation of the Tripolitan campaign, declared the novelist, was due in a great measure to Britain, whose Government could have ended it long ago had it only adopted a resolute attitude at Constantinople in the early etages of the war. ITALIAN PAPERS' CONFLICTING VIEWS. Rome, August 6. In his interview with a Paris journalist the other day Gabriele D'Annunzio, the Italian poet and novelist, declared that the prolongation of the. Tripolitan campaign was due in a great measure to the British Government, which could have ended it long ago had it only adopted a resolute attitude at Constantinople in the early stagey of the war. This statement has evoked considerable comment among the Rome newspapers. The Messagro agrees that Great Britain could have brought the war to an end with one word. On the other hand, the Vita, the chief organ of the Radicals, asserts that Britain could not have interfered in favor of Italy without seriously endangering her interests in Constantinople and "in her Mohammedan possessions.