ITALIAN DEMANDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1938, Page 5

ITALIAN DEMANDS

NOT OCCASIONING DANGER OF WAR DUCE MAY ASK CHAMBERLAIN TO MEDIATE. CONJECTURE IN LONDON. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, December 28. The ‘'Daily Telegraph" says it is stated in all quarters that there is not the slightest danger of the dispute between Italy and France developing into war.

There seems to be a general conviction in Government circles that Signor Mussolini, with German support, will obtain some sort of satisfaction.

The correspondent of the British United Press in Rome says that sources close to the French Embassy state fhat Signor Mussolini will seek Mr Chamberlain's good offices with France to secure a large measure of autonomy for Italians in Tunisia.

He will ask, secondly, for permission for Italians to emigrate freely to Tunisia and buy land which at. present is uncultivated; thirdly, the cession of the port of Jibuti and the sale of the railway to Italy; and, fourthly, Italian participation in the management of the Suez Canal.

The French Foreign Office announces that a topographical mission is being dispatched to survey the illdefined. frontier between French Somaliland and the adjoining Italian possessions.

The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the departure of the liners Sphinx for the Far East - and Chantilly for Madagascar were delayed in order to embark a battalion of 850 Senegalese rifles for Jibuti.

The destroyer Epervier, which is at present in the Eastern Mediterranean, has been ordered to Jibuti to join the D’lberville, which is already en route from Beirut. MR CHAMBERLAIN’S PART. REPORTED ASSURANCE TO FRANCE. < (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, December 29. . The British United Press Paris correspondent says Madame Tabouis states that Sir Eire Phipps (British Ambassador)/ assured M. Bonnet that Mr Chamberlain would not discuss Franco-Italian relations with Signor Mussolini.