Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1939. RECOGNITION AND ITS SEQUEL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 March 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1939. RECOGNITION AND ITS SEQUEL.

TN spite of the outcry that is still being raised against it by the British Labour Opposition, the recognition of the Franco Government in Spain probably has now become a practical necessity and the only apparent means of averting further useless slaughter in that country. At the same time, the recognition of a Spanish Government that has been established in power by the two nations that are doing more than any others to upset world peace is not a thing in which the democracies can find any reason for pride or satisfaction.

Only remarkably optimistic and probably misguided people will believe that the triumph of the Spanish insurgents and their totalitarian allies is likely to open the way to the establishment of peace in Europe. Since the. death of Pope Pius XI there has been a lull in Italian agitation against France, but there are hints that this agitation will be revived as soon as a new pontiff has been elected. One of the latest reports on the subject states that the Italian Ambassador m Berlin and Herr von Ribbentrop discussed Italy’s “expected demands against France,’’ and that well-informed people believe that Italy will present her “natural aspirations’’ through diplomatic channels.

Any such presentation presumably will be a violation of the Anglo-Italian Agreement, under which Italy undertook to respeet°the status quo in the Mediterranean, but it cannot be taken for granted on that account that it will not be made. As dictator of Italy, Signor Mussolini plainly is faced by economic and other problems which will go far to account for the venomous comments made not long ago in the controlled Italian Press upon the fact of Anglo-French solidarity and the obstacles it threatens to raise to the realisation of Italian and German ambitions in Spain and elsewhere. In the House of Commons recently, Mr Chamberlain said that: “Statements in the Press do not represent the. views of the Government of any country.’’ So far as the strictly controlled newspapers of the totalitarian countries are.concerned, this statement must be classed as a masterpiece of inaccuracy. Ample evidence is available that in Italy, the country to which Mr Chamberlain was particularly referring, statements of any importance in the Press represent the views of the Italian dictatorship and nothing else. Mussolini is first and last an exponent of “an insane gospel of brute force.’’ He has defined his creed in the statement (made after the Italian military manoeuvres in 1934): — We must not, therefore, be prepared for war tomorrow, but for war today. We are becoming, and shall always approach nearer to being, a military nation. Since we are not afraid of words, let us add, militarist. To complete the matter: warlike, that is, endowed more and more with the virtues of obedience, sacrifice, and devotion to our Fatherland. With all his bold and militant talk, Mussolini has been, by the standard of results, a singularly inept and blundering leader of his nation. ' Apart from the still unresolved issues that centre on Spain, and perhaps to some extent in that country also, Italy has been used and thrust aside by Germany in the’development of totalitarian aggression in Europe. It is Germany, for example, that has absorbed Austria and brought her own frontier up to that of Italy—an extension of Nazi power that Mussolini only a little over four years ago threatened to oppose by instant warlike action. Germany, too, monopolises the plunder of Czechoslovakia, which. she is treating as an enslaved province, and the advantages of penetration into South-Eastern Europe. Even in his own particular enterprise the conquest of Abyssinia, Mussolini admittedly has imposed additional liabilities in Italy instead of conferring on her the benefits /he promised of African empire. It is unfortunately only too easy to believe that Mussolini is more than ever inclined*to make whatever mischief he can in and beyond Europe, but his actual power for mischief is likely to be measured chiefly by the extent to which he. can secure the collaboration of Germany. It has been said of the Italian dictator that in spite of his personal inclinations, he will not lightly embark on war because:— He knows the weakness of Italy, especially economically, and the risks of a struggle in the Mediterranean. In staking new claims in Africa, he is actuated by the consideration that the colonial question will shortly come on the tapis. He knows that Hitler intends to raise it, and he is determined that Italy should not be forgotten if there is any talk of a colonial redistribution. While Mussolini remains at the head of affairs in Italy, the peace of Europe will continue to be menaced, but his power for harm is likely to be measured largely by the extent to which the Nazi dictatorship is prepared to turn his militarist inclinations to aceou'nt in further schemes of aggression.