Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1938. “A CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE.”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1938. “A CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE.”

AS he has thus far been reported, at fairly considerable length, Lord Halifax’s statement to the League Council at Geneva on the Anglo-Italian agreement was less remarkable for what it included than for what he left unsaid. As might have been expected, much that the British Foreign Secretary said on this noteworthy occasion was at once incontestable and of considerable importance. Nevertheless, on the report meantime available, he left quite untouched some of the greatest issues that the Anglo-Italian agreement involves.

There is no doubt that Italy’s action in Ethiopia, as Lord Halifax observed, resulted in producing a regrettable state of tension between Britain and Italy, which reflected itself, not only upon the mutual relations of the two countries but over a much wider field. The puzzling thing is to find in the reported words of Lord Halifax, or from any other source of information meantime available, justification for believing that the essential causes of this tension have been removed. An honest citizen, catching a bandit red-handed in the commission of some crime, does not make all things well by telling the detected criminal that on the whole it is a pity that tension should exist between them. Apparently, however, it is an attitude closely analogous to this on the. part of the British Government that Lord Halifax invites the people of his own country and others to accept as “a contribution to general peace.”

, It would no doubt be an excellent thing, from their own standpoint and that of . other nations, that Britain and Italy should reach a firm and friendly understanding. As Lord Halifax said:—-

It was not only ... to their own specific interests, which run parallel throughout the Mediterranean and down the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, but to the advantage also of many, other countries, that, his Majesty’s Government and the Italian Government should settle their outstanding differences and lay down a basis which it is hoped will ensure good understanding between them in areas where their mutual interest is involved. This is what the two Governments have sought to achieve by the conclusion of their recent agreement.

Invidious as it may seem to question in any way this outpouring of gracious good feeling, those who have followed the of events in Europe and in Africa during the last year’or two may be pardoned for askingon what foundation of assurance the understanding with Italy is supposed to rest, and how far, if at all, it can be depended upon.

At the League Council meeting, Lord Halifax found himself supported by the representatives of France in his claim that the agreement with Italy was a valuable contribution to general peace, but it remains uncertain how far France, who is herself hoping for a “favourable Franco-Italian understanding to further the cause of peace” is simply making the best of a bad job.

The plain man, at all events, may find reason for doubting- the value and the stability of the agreement with Italy in the fact that Italy has broken faith in the recent past and. is doing so today by her continued aggression in Spain. Italy has in her hands one enslaved victim of aggression in Abyssinia. In conjunction with Germany, she is doing her bkst, and not without prospects of success, to complete the subjugation of Spain. Incidentally France is thus faced by the possibility of having to look to her defences on the Pyreneean frontier she has long been able to disregard.

In spite of all this, both France and Britain deem it desirable to seek an understanding with Italy largely on that country’s own terms Presumably the underlying hope is that Italy may be detached from Germany and may be induced to assist in raising barriers to the extension of the Nazi hegemony in Middle Europe. Even should that hope be realised, it seems to stand out rather clearly that the agreement Britain has made, and the one France hopes to make, with Italy, will not take either a very high or a very hopeful place in the annals of international politics and diplomacy.