1940-12-24 — Page 3

ITALIANS INVITED TO THINK

Mr. Churchill Suggests Disavowal Of Mussolini Need Destruction ITALIANA

Of Italy Go On

WHIP TO CABINET RANK

His Majesty the King held a Privy Council at Buckingham Palace yes terday morning at which Mr. Anthony Eden receiv ed his seals of office as the. Secretary new Foreign and Captain Margesson as the Secretary for War.

They kissed hands on their ap pointment.

Mr. Eden took over at the For- eign Office yesterday,

He is no stranger there, for he was For- eign Secretary from 1925 la 1938.

His return is widely welcomed by the British press, and Viscount Cranborne, who will go to the House of Lords" as Governmen! spokesman on foreign policy, will renew his collaboration with Mr. Eden, for from 1935 to 1938 he was Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

He resigned with Mr. Eden be- cause neither supported Mr. Chamberlain's policy of appeasing Italy.

The choice of Captain Mar- gesson is somewhat unusual, as he has been Chief Government Whip for nine years and has never yet hold Cabinet rank.

His organising ability and strong sense of discipline are expected to fit him well for the post of Secretary of State for War. Reuter.

GENEROUS GIFT OF MALAYAN CHINESE

AS A RESULT OF A BIG DRIVE BY THE CHINESE COM- MUNITY OF MALAYA A‘FORT- NIGHT AGO £30,000 HAS BEEN RAISED FOR THE LORD MA- YOR'S AIR-RAID DISTRESS FUND.

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A DRAMATIC APPEAL TO THE ITALIAN NATION TO DIS- AVOW MUSSOLINI “AND TO FOLLOW THE HOUSE OF 'SA- VOY WAS MADE BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL, BROADCASTING FROM LONDON LAST NIGHT.

Mr. Churchill also revealed for the first time that messages had passed between him and the Duce messages just prior to Italy's entry into the war which disclosed that Italy only took up arms against Britain because of her treaty with Germany.

Mr. Churchill, ་། speak to the Italian people, and I speak to you from London, the heart of the British İslands and of the British Commonwealth and Empire.

"

"'To-night,' said

"I speak to you what diplomats the authority of the Vatican and

of the Roman call words of great truth and res-

Catholle Church, peet. We are at war-that is aagainst the wishes of the Italian very strange and terrible thought. | people, who had no lust for this war, has arrayed the inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the pagan barbarians.

"Whoever would imagine, n. 131 the fast few melancholy years, that the British and Pta- Ifan nations would be trying to destroy one another?

"We have always been frierids. We were the champions of the Italian risorgimento. We were partisans of Garibaldi, Mazzini and Cavour.

Tragedy Of History "There is the tragedy of Italian history and there slands the criminal who has wrought it.

It

war

may happen on the Continent,

England will go on to the end, even quite alone, as we have done before, and I believe with some assurance that we shall be aided in increasing measure by the United States, and indeed by all Americas,

"This is the gist of a letter sent to Signor Mussolini when I became Prime Minister.

Choice Open

"I make no comment upon the Duce's answer. It speaks for itself. Anyone can see who it was that wanted peace and who it was that meant to have war.

"One man and only one man was resolved to pledge Italy after all these years of strain and effort into the whirlpool of war. "What is the position of Italy to-day? Where is it Duce has led his distrusting peo- ple after eighteen years of ducea torial power?

that

the

"There is one man and one only who has led you there.

APOLOGY

FOR DEFEAT

The remarkable “apo- logy"

7” issued by the Italian news agency in the form of reports from Marshal Graziani on the opera- tions in the Western De- sert has aroused some comment in military cir- cles in London.

The Italian High Command is at pains to say that the Fascist troops "resisted nobly but the weight of attack was too much."

A similar tribute. is paid to the R.A.F. when the Italian High Command says that they could not make the full weight of the Italian air force felt because if bad wea- ther.

No explanation is. given why the weather should have boon worse for the Italians than it was for the R.A.F. In the samo sky!

Graziani's point that he was not taken by surprise only makes the

Italian defence seem even more inefficient.

It is not clear why Graziani should say he had adequate sup- plies of guns to deal with any movement from the south when in direction. fact the British attacked from that

― Reuter.

NAVAL BUILDING IN CANADA

Britain has placed orders in

I leave this unfolding untli Canada for another 12 mine- the day comes-as come it will sweepers. This brings the total -when the Italian nation will|number of naval vessels to be once more take the shaping of built in Canadian shipyards up its own fortunes.”—Reuter. to 120.-Reuter.

"What is the defence that is

"What hard choice is open now? It is to stand up to the battery put forward for his action? ie, of course, the quarrel about of the whole British Empire on Liberal Movement

Sanctions and Abyssinia. Let the sea, in the air, and in Africa, us lock at that.

and to the vigorous counter-at- "All that great movement 'to-

tack of Greece, wards liberty of the Italian na-

"Together after the last tion which lighted the 19th Cen-Italy and Britain both signed the tury was aided 'and was hilled by Covenant of the League of Na- the British Parliament and public. |tions, which forbid all parties to that Covenant to make war upon "Our fathers and our grand-cach other or upon fellow mem fathers lotiged to see Italy freed bers of the League, and bound from the Austrian yoke ind to all signatories to come to the ald see all minor barriers in Italy of any member who was attack- swept away so that the Italian ed by another. people and their fair land might take their honoured place as one of the leading "powers upon the Continent and as a brilliant" and gifted member of the family of Europe and of Christendom.

"We have Drever Ween your -fors until now. In the last war, against the barbaroud Hüns, we were your comfrädes.

"For fifteen years after that war We were your friends.

"Presently Abyssinia came knocking at the door asking to be a member. We British advised against it. We doubted whether they had reached a stage in their development which warranted their inclusion, but it was Musso- Ini who insisted that Abyssinia should become a member of the League, and who therefore bound himself and bound' you and us to respect their covenanted rights.

What Need ?

"Although the institutions which you adopted after the war were not akin to ours and diverged, as we think,' from the sovereign' im-

"I declare and my words will pulses which had commanded the go far-that nothing that happen- unity of Italy, we could still walked in that The money will be sent to Lon- together in peace and goodwill, don' shortly. Reuter.

CAN'T SLEEP NIGHTS?

A hot cup of Cocomalt be- fore retiring induces sound and restful ster

Gromalt

Amity And Esteem

"Many thousands of our people

Abyssinian quarrel can count for or justify the dead- ly war which has now broken out between us.

"Then the great war between the British and French, democra- cies and the Prussian militarists

dwelt with you in Italy. We liked each other, we got on well to- or Nazi dictatorship began again.

gether. There were reciprocal services, there was amity, there

was esteem.

"And now we are at war; now we are condemned to work each other's ruin. Our aviators tearing and will tear your African Empire to shreds and tatters.

are

"We are only now at the beginning of this sombre tale. Who can say where it will end? "Presently we shall be forced to come to much closer grips.-

One Man

"How has all this come about and what is it all for? Italians, I will tell you the truth.

"It is all, because of one man One man and one `mìn alone has ranged the Italian people in a deadly struggle against the. Brl- tish Empire and has deprived Italy of the sympathy and in- timacy of the United States of America.

"Where, was the need of Italy

to intervene? Where was the need to atrike at prostrate: France? Where was the need to Invade Egypt, which is under British protection?

"We were content with Italian neutrality. During the first eight months of the war we paid great deference to Italian interests.

. But this was all put down to fear.

“Now that I have taken up my office as Prime Minister and Min- ister of Defence, I look back to desire to speak words of goodw!!! our meeting in Rome and feel" a

tion; across what seems to be a to you, as chief of the Italian na- swiftly, widened gulf,

Is It Too Late ?

"Is it too late to stop a river of blood from flowing between the British and Italian peoples?

"That he is a great man i do not deny; but that after eighteen. "We can, no doubt, inflict griev yours for aabridled power net our injuries upon one another and handed your country to the haul evanchi, other cruelly and Mortld: verge of tuin fomni fud↑ darkán fans! Méditériokian witn denied by none,

with our strife..

"It all orie manho. Ogainst the C7ʊwi, Eid "Royal. Family, against the Pope and all

'It is idle, to predict the course the great battles now raging in Europe, bt I am sure that what

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