Evening star., 1925-08-09

A--> Tic opciiifS udSS Ol tHe con- |
ference was the statement of |
| the Italian view of world conditions !
by an eminent Fascist associate of |
MuSSolini, Count Antonio Cippico |
Not only was Count Cippico's decla-
| ration frank to the point of brutality, |
but it supplied an interesting and |
significant challenge to those who |
are seeking within ard without the |
| League of Nations 70 set up state of
permanent peace.
| Reduced to its simplest terms what
Count Cippico actually said was this
| Italy, with a population close to Al
oOo.OOo, crowded into an area of 100
/ 900 square miles-that is less than
| twice the area of New England finds
| itself lacking in almost all the es-
| sentials which go to make a modern
| state and beyond all else to consti-
| tute a great power in the modern
sense. Moreover, with a population
| increasing al the rate of nearly half
| Il million d year Italy not only sees
| herself without colonial territories in
which to settle her growing popula-
| tion. but actually finds the doors
| barred against them in other coun-
tries, of which the United States is
! the most important.
Long Struggle for Unity.
For Italy the World War was the
| final detail in the long struggle for
| national unity, which began disas-
| trously at Novara in the first half of
the last century. In reclaiming to
Italian rule Trieste and the Trentino
and reaching the crests of the Alps
| at all points in the wide circle from
Ventimiglia to Fiume, Italy for the
| first time since the Roman era might
feel herself master in her own house.
| Only Switzerland held few outposts
| south of SUBMITS of the Alps and
| switzerland was rather a buffer state
| than a menace; with Switzerland. too
italy promptly signed treaty of ar
bitration. which fixed this frontier.
But If Italy, for the first time in
I modern history, gained her natural
ana strategic frontiers on the land side,
as a result Of the World War, if she
recovered Trent. Trieste, Fiume, Pola
! ana pushed her boundary posts be-
| yond Bolzano and Moran looking sea
ward her situation did not improve.
/ The single great power whose shores
are entirely inclosed by the Mediter.
ranean, Italy saw the outer gates Of
| this sea held by Britain at Suez and
Glbra ltar, with Malta midway between
and almost within sight of the Italian
| coast. And while Britain held the
| outer gates, France at Toulon a lac
| clio and Bizerta stretched another bar
! rier from the European to the African
coast
Thus in case Of war between Italy
and Britain, the mere possession of
the outer gates by the latter would
| paralyze all seaborne traffic of the
former, while in case of war with
| France, the situation would be hardly
better. for, although the fleets of
| France and Italy are of equal
strength and under the Washington
conference agreement are to remain
| so for some years, at least, subma-
rine strength remains like cruiser ton
mage without limitation and the coast
OF French North Africa supplies half
dozen bases between Bizerta and Oran
! from which Italian commerce can be
attacked far more advanta geousIy
| than was British in the World War
Would Be Shut OF.
Now, the significance of this strate-
| gfc situation must not be mista ken
1t means quite simply that in case OF
| war with either Of the two other
| great powers of the Mediterranean.
| Italy would be automatically shut off
| from sea communication with the out
| side world. Such an isolation would
mean something vastly more serious
| than the practical isolation of Great
! Britain at one critical state of the
| World War, for while Great Britain,
like Italy, lacked food, she did possess
the raw materials out Of which arms
and munitions are made-namely, coal
and tron-while both are almost com
pletely lacking in the Italian PENN
| sula..
If you contrast the situation of
| France with that of Italy, noting that
the population Of the two countries is
substantially identical, the Italian
weakness becomes obvious. Living in
country almost twice as large, the
French population Is well-nigh self
supporting; for its food it has good
crop years, to make very slight de-
mands upon the outside world. while
at best Italy must draw enormously
upon the world or starve. While
Italy is without coal, France possesses
| mines which yield two-thirds of the
annual consumption, and while Italy
Is without iron, France contains more
than half Of the iron deposits of Eu-
rope and can exchange surplus iron
for necessary coal. While 1t is true
that Italy has in recent years made
great use of water power as a sub
stitute for coal, France possesses at
least equal resources in this direction
and for both countries coal still re-
mains a real necessity.
| Suffers by Comparison.
terials generally, France, with her
great colonial empire, already draws
many OF the tropical products and is
making experiments which may pres
emily enable her to supply herself with
rubber from the Kongo and cotton
from the Niger. Thus, in sum, while
Italy must import annually vastly
moro than she exports, France in re-
cent postwar years has been able to
\ QChfoVo In har ~
moreover, you compare the colonial
empires of the two countries, it is
clear how enormous Is the disparity
In North Africa, in West Africa and
In Central Africa France has three
great establishments, together with
Madagascar on the east coast, while
in Asia she holds in IndoChin a ter
ritory twice as large as Italy itself
The Italian colonial empire. on the
other hand. is represented by the
wastes Of Tripoli and few relatively
insignificant holdings on the Red Sea
and on the Somali coast.
When 1t comes to the matter of emf
grafton, too, the Italian problem Is
unmistakable. Each year nearly half
a million more Italians are born than
!! die, thus while 1t is an unusual year
in France when the excess of births
over deaths reaches the hundred thou
sand mark, Italy's surplus is steadily
five times as great. 1t is, too. twice
as great as that of Britain. But
France and Britain have vast areas
under their respective flags to which
to send their emigrants. For Britons
there are the overseas dominions,
while for Frenchmen there are Tunis,
Algeria and Morocco. almost within
sight of French shores and with cli-
matte conditions only slightly different
from those Of Provence itself