San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-09
ITALy'S HASTY
! ACTION IS NOT
b SUCH A CRIME
Other European Nations
rs Have Acted SINH
larly.
-. 49, -
ROME IS AMBITIOUS
Adriatic and Albania Are
Names Dear to f
Italians.
ROME IS AMBITIOUS
By ANDRE TARDIEU.

Copyright, by the San Antonio Light.
Paris. Sept. Sand now the ltalo-
Greek conflict,
While the situation changes hour
", the causes and the meaning Of the
differences between these nauons
point TO certain conclusions which
, will be as true tomorrow as they were
yesterday.
II has been thought. especially at
London. that Mussolini went bit
strong
And. indeed, the reasonableuess of
his methods may be questioned.
II must be remembered, however,
that the matter vss serious and that
the SSsssinstioa OF sn entire diplo-
matte mission justified the demand for
instant reparation.
England seems to forget that she
has acted similarly in the past.
Great nations do not have the habit
Of allowing their citizens 10 be mas
sacred without protest. especially
when the citizens are officials OF the
nation in question.
One must think twice before cast
ing stones at Italy.
Italy Acts Peculiar.
vi NOA4SNs 4AGAs -AAANaAtA
pointedly her determination 10 act
alone when she repulsed the interven-
ton of the League Of Nations and &C.
cupied Corfu instead OF awaiting &C.
ton by the inter-allied council which
sits at Paris under the name Of "con-
ference Of ambassadors.
Here, again, if Mussolini wanted
satisfaction, he perhaps had good rea-
son for doing the thing himself.
Indeed when the French captain,
Montaigre, was assassinated two
years ago in Upper Silesia and when
last year in the same country French
soldiers were massacred from ambush,
the reparations France obtained by
the means now proposed to Italy were
ridiculous and even humiliating.
/ Nobody could be tempted to follow
I these examples.
Does this mean that Italy has no
political considerations in the back of
her head?
It certainly does not.
: The Adriatic and Albania are
names dear to Italy.
| The Fascist call the Adriatic
@Mare Nostrum."
I As for Albania, Rome has had her
eyes OH that little state throughout
the war.
+ In general it might be said that
( modern Rome considers herself the
legitimate heir of modern Greece, Just
: as ancient Rome considered herself
the legitimate heir of ancient Greece.
Intelligent observers discerned this
tendency in 1922 when Smyrna was
burned, and later, at the Lausanne
conference.
t. A few days ago, Premier Mussolini
recalled that Corfu once belonged to
the Venetian republic.
And when statesmen talk thus Of
the past it is because they are think
ing of the future.
A game is now beginning which
has as its object the determining of
supremacy in the Eastern Mediter-
ranean.
\ Great Britain until now did not
dream that Italy could become seri-
Gus competitor.
But perhaps she will be forced to
change her mind.
IL she does, she will learn many
things-among them that Jugoslavia' 5
access to the Adriatic means nothing
IL inc auIldllC ID 10 DtCOule al IIdl-
ian lake and that the Suez route
is the one key to British policy which
Britain can never permit to be
jeopardized.
So Great Britain's ill-humor today
has its political basis as well as has
Italy's intransigeance.
Hour for Direct Action.
In any case one thing stands out
clearly:
Namely, that the hour Of direct
action has struck, and that Europe.
in this crisis, shows a minimum of
organization.
When the League Of Nations was
founded, there were dreams of other
methods Of procedure.
But the leagues own father, Wood
row Wilson, backed down when
France proposed to make the league
a reality by furnishing it with armed
Z forces to make its decisions eff
fective.
And then America Withdrew alto
gether.
So that between the ideal and the