AN ALLEGED SHARING OF GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1939, Page 6

AN ALLEGED SHARING OF GAINS

WITH an apparent determination to make the best o£ a bad job, the London “Times” has said of Mr Chamberlain s visit’to Rome that it would be a profound mistake to describe the resuits in terms of victory or defeat, and that: “Whatever gains have been made accrue to both and arc shared by both peoples.” According to “The Times,” the greatest ol these gains perhaps has been Signor Mussolini’s repeated asstuanee of his determination to work for European peace.

That is a truly illuminating statement, though hardly in the sense intended by the London daily. Just how iar Signor Mussolini is really determined to work for European peace may be perceived very easily in such matters as the Italian aggression in Spain, the wanton provocation that is being offered to France and the intimation to Japan, reported yesterday, that Italy .is ready to transform the Anti-Comintcrn Pact into a military alliance, the scope oi which Signor Mussolini does not desire to limit.

Smooth talk about the desire for peace being made articulate cannot dispose of the unpleasant fact that the part Italy has played and is playing under Signor Mussolini’s leadership is Iliac of a truculent mischief-maker. It is true that the Italian dictator has played that bad part somewhat ineptly. Backing German aggression, he now has the mortification of seeing Italy excluded as definitely as the Western democracies from friendly contact and trade relationship with the small countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The German occupation of the Brenner Pass, too, is an event of which the true significance was perceived and acted upon by Signor Mussolini when he prevented it by a threat oi armed action on the occasion of the assassination of the then Austrian Chancellor, Dr Dollfuss.

Having derived small profit thus far from bis partnership with Nazi Germany, Signor Mussolini now seems to be staking his hopes upon what has been described lairly as a policy ol blackmail, with the role of victim allotted to France. It must be hoped that the recent conversations in Romo have done something to diminish the Italian dictator’s hopes ol achieving success in that policy. It is only too plain, however, that a very dangerous situation is developing in Spain.

In a debate in the French Chamber of Deputies, reported today, M. Leon Blum denounced the non-intervention policy as “a miserable and bloody hypocrisy in which France refrained from supporting one side while the other side received all the help it wanted,” while another former French Premier, AT. Flandin, declared that French intervention would only lead to increased intervention from the other side and finally to world war.

It is perhaps now too late to do anything that will prevent the stage being set in Spain for world war. It is obvious in any case that with Spain dominated by Italy and German)-— a state ol' affairs only too likely to arise—a serious strategic threat will be offered to France and Britain. Very shortly it should be known whether Mr Chamberlain was able to do anything whatever, in his visit to Rome to minimise or avert that threat, or whether his record is that of one ‘‘who followed the line of least resistance and called it peace. I here, ceitainh is little enough in the current, aspect of events in Spain and elsewhere to point to or promise results of value from the Rome conversations, or to disclose gains to be shared. or dealt with in any other fashion.