1937-02-03 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 3, 1937,

Italy's Task in Abyssinia: Only

VIEWED from any angle, the

Ethiopian affair is far from

ended. No amount of wishful think- ing can minimize its far-reaching consequences.

Just

Beginning

force called Italy uses Mussolini for its purposes in much the same way as Germany uses Hitler.

Two points cannot be over- emphasised. The first is that

In Africa the march of the Black Then, too, the Duce began to lean- Reviewing the observations of a leaders like Mussolini care very Shirts into Addis Ababa, where in more heavily on his second post crucial year, beginning with the little for outside opinion. Their their most pervasive days the old ulate. His great gamble was on May day when the jaunty Anthony power depends on how they appear Roman legions never penetrated, Italy itself. How far could he Eden strode into Rome, swinging at home. In a sense, since they must have repercussions on a co- count on the discipline, the endur- his malacca stick, and ending with personify the wounded amour pro- lonial system perpetuated within ance, the spirit of sacrifice, the the May day when the weather-bea- pre of nations, it depends on how the arc of the Covenant itself, which hardihood and morale of the Italian ten Badoglio saluted the harassed far they can defy outside opinion has sanctified annexations by call- soldier and the Italian people? guard of the British Legation as he and achieve results. The "moral ing them mandates. In Europe it Was the Italy he had in- rode into Addis Ababa on a white judgment of mankind" does not shifts the weights in a trembling voked and paraded before the jeer- horse, it seems to me that I have thunder so loud in Italy as the thun- balance, for there is no use blink- ing world a figure of speech, a pro- watched a nation hardening into a derers might expect, and would not ing the brutal fact that a nation jection of his own ambition, or a new mould. It would be rash to re- even were it heard more clearly. able to out-bluff Great Britain, over- real nation in real movement? An port that the process goes far be- The eyes and ears of the populace ride the opposition of fifty States American military observer, in low the surface or that it will last are turned inward rather than out- and confound military experts rises not only in its own estimation but in the esteem of its neighbours. In Geneva it chalks up another set- back for an institution which fails because it is not international enough, which has been persistently used by the great powers as an in- Reme when the campaign started, when the patternmaker. relaxes develop Ethiopia. "Once we acquire strument of national policy and in interpreted the African enterprise from his labours. Such as it is, an empire," he shrugs, "it will be the present test lost authority be as Mussolini's test of the military however, it is a transformation easy enough to borrow money on cause so obviously torn between the machine he had created, a kind of which nobody in the modern world it." And to some extent he has al- conflicting interests of England and dress rehearsal to prove the can afford to ignore.

France.

By Anne McCormick

calibre of the

new

and

*

For Italy victory will exact penal- untried forces before they had to ties more oppressive and long drawn perform in Europe. "How does he Desire out than the most zealous sanction- know whether the Fascist army is To Serve ist can devise. The real endurance an army of iron?" asked the Ameri-

test now begins. From now on there can.

is warfare without glory, heroics

without the spotlight, tremendous

national effort without the solder-

ing heat of universal opposition. A Italian

country taking to aggression under Question Mark

an aggressive leader because it is

*

ward. They feel the world is against them, but they are taught to believe that if they succeed against the world they will in the end be justified. The Italian rea- sons in the same fashion if you ask him how Italy will ever be able to

ready been proved right in the re- cent understanding with Germany.

The second point is more sug- gestive. What most impresses the impassioned democrat, who becomes more impassioned as he surveys Essentially, the United Italy alternative systems, is that the movement was a nationalist move new dictatorships, moving in the ment, just as Italy's participation same direction, whether it is called in the war was a step toward na- Right or Left, evoke something in tional aggrandisement, just as the their subjects which democracy half-hearted acceptance of a dicta- seems to have lost the power to torial regime in the mood of disil- inspire. In Britain and USA,

de-

poor and deprived of cutlets for This question, applied to the lusionment following Versailles ex- citizens demand what the govern labour and goods has still to prove Fascist State as a whole, is still to pressed a surge of resentful nation- ment is going to do for them; in that it is not too poor for the costly be fully answered. The Ethiopian alism. More by instinct than de Italy the government makes and endless business of subjugating campaign has raised the status of sign-because the new self-consci- mands on the people and the peo- and developing the one segment of

flowered gradually from ple seem to want to serve and give Darkest Africa the richest have

its ancient root this cohering to the country. passed by.

*

*

Duce's Big Gamble

Italy

as a military power, but ousness whether Marshal Badoglio's ex- ploit in mopping up Ethiopia in one swift, well-organised dash is a Pyrrhic victory depends on how far Mussolini can follow up. To what extent can he mobilise a civil Mussolini has yet to prove that population already strained to the Ethiopia has a value equal to the utmost to accept further sacrifices very real price he has paid and for their country? must pay to exploit it. To date he

Last November he confided to a has staked everything on two large friend that he hoped sanctions. postulates. The first was the state would last six months and no of Europe, he banked on the un- longer. None knew better that the likelihood of concerted action by economic siege, while stiffening the England and France while one resistance of the people as nothing country was militarily weak, the else could do, spurring to fresh- other politically weak, and both efforts the technical genius of the were frightened by the growing country and delivering into his might of Germany-

hands a long-coveted control of the When the Hoare-Laval peace plan national economic interests, would. broke down before a storm of popu- if suffered too long, cease to be lar indignation in England, what stimulant and become a struck him most was the unanim incalculable effects.

ous objection, expressed in "The

Times" of London and repeated all

down the line, that these proposals

of the British Government, now Gamble

known to have been formulated in On Italy London and sent to Paris, rewarded

poison/of

the aggressor by giving him "more-To-day, more than ever, Musso than he had conquered" To Mus- lini has to gamble on Italy. The solini the inference was clear: he more difficult and more important would get only what he could take phase of the war he willed has to From that time on there was no be fought in the domestic field. For further talk of the distinction be the world outside, also, Italy repre

outlying conquered provinces that Italy that stands up to Englan formed the Ethiopian Empire. The defies the Mediterranean fee further we penetrate into this chaos Europe in turmoil, goes ahea the more we wonder whether there spite universal execration and 1s an Abyssinia proper," he remark all respects unidentifiable with the an interviewer after the easy-going, operatic, picture gal- ops had reached Amba Alagi, lery land that most tourists know. the grand scale military drive did Where is this Italy geing, down to begin until the Hoare-Laval ef bankruptcy and defeat or up Then, and not till then among the first-class powers Has lieve, was the it really changed un the Fascist taken to push on to Addi regime, and if so with the aim of conquering how deeply

or a phrase?

tween "Abyssinia proper" and the sents a question mark, this strange-

country.

N

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