ITALY’S MOVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1939, Page 5

ITALY’S MOVE

“A FRIENDLY GESTURE TO LONDON” WITHDRAWAL OF THREAT TO GREECE. FAILURE TO GRASP BRITISH VIEWPOINT. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright NEW YORK. September 21. Considering the close relations between Greece and England, a decision announced by Italy to withdraw her forces from the border of Greece and Albania is the equivalent of a friendly gesture to London, states the Rome correspondent of the "New York Times” in a radio-telephone report. Italy had been expected automatically to invade Greece if she entered the war on Germany’s side, and now she has made it clear that she does not intend to carry out that threat. Her prime consideration in the Balkans is to maintain peace and the territorial status quo. which are worth nothing if both are menaced by Germany and Russia. It is not pleasing to Italian statesmen to see Russia entering the Balkans. It is impossible to understand the general Italian opinion towards the war, however, without realising that it is based on a complete, honest inability to understand the Anglo-Saxon point of view. To all but one in a thousand a world wpr in order to destroy Hitlerism is “a monstrous aberration.” as "La Tribuna” puts it.