Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-17
ltaly's Hope TO Continue as World Power
Is in Building Up Great Colonial Empire

Continued from First Page)
Port on the Dapuhe-achieve friendly
Eeiauons with the Jugoslavs, Their she
y assured of the support of the
tszerhoslovaks. for whom she is the
single real protector against German
ehclrClement via Vienna. Then she
can create central European bloc
but always there are two "pagers:
flrst, that of the advance of Germany
Gown the Danube and the union Of
austria with the Reich Again. were
'i possible to Crea e some Danubian
con- ederation. which would mean to
rccreate some portion of the old
fapShurg monarchy. Italy would at
once he excluded from central Euro
fean Influence ard this confederation
would at one time menace her hold
upon Trieste and challenge her SUI
.'FtmacN IN the AdriatiC The old
tiapShurG motto YVES Divided ald
tRie' but To rule Italy must keep
@ht ancient Hapsburg lands divided
Must Guard Two Rivers.
The other day Paris was at one
time amused and irritated by the
statement made from Rome that there
vas to be a restoration of the Roman
empire. achieved 10y the union of
NN''N' am AtGilN Will the rather
broadly implied suggestion that the
French would become Italians. Yet
underneath this rather gro'esque
formula there lay just this bit of light
on Italian foreign policy. IT was
when Rome was able to mount guard
on the Rhine and the Danube that
she was able to maintain her vast
Nedi erranean empire. 1t was when
tile Germans oVerran these boundaries
shat the empire fell
Italian policy, then, looking to Il
future still distant and notwitnstarC.
rig the bitterness which exists in the
feelings of the French and Italian
peoples toward each other, sees that
each has a common interest in pre-
venting q new German advance
whether down the Danube or across
the Rhine. Italy in alliance with Ger:
many might crush France but Ger
many freed from all French restraint
would swiftly and surely put u term
70 all Italian influence and power
Yrom Vienna to ConstantiuUple and
from Trieste 10 SaIonica. Franco
Italian alliance. with more or less
close British association. involving re-
DunCiation Of all Italian aspirations TO
expand at the expense of either III
North Africa or in the western Med
Nerranean-this is the direction Ital-
fan policy is beginning to follow.
10 be sure, 1t is not easy to put out
she fires Of Italian resentment pro-
Voked by French and British policy
at the Paris conference, by the French
treatment Of Italians IN Tuuis. by the
British course in the Corfu incident
Least OF all is Il easy foI Italians to
endure what they feel 10 he Il certain
condescension in the air of both the
older states, a tendency t. treat Italy
as parVenu. Yet by degrees ana
On conditions Italy believes this bit
terness would pass.
A Price Attached
But for Italy there is ii price at
tached to all this complaisa nee. To
sccept the status quo In the western
mediterranean and in North Africa
from Suez to Gran is to rcnounce
what was in Roman days the easiest
line OF Italian expansion To accept
and DEFEND the status quo from Wen
ia SOuthWard-thiS is to rencunce all
hope OF expansion across the Adriatic.
where Rome ana Venice wer- both in
their turn supreme. Southern renun.
Citations would be profitable aniv IL
there We're We're allowed Italy else
where an opportunity for her expan
sion.
And that opportunity is marked
down already in all Italian minds.
Greece has tried her great experiment
IA the restoration of the BYZANTINE
Empire and failed. The Greek popu-
iattons have been swept away from
western Asia Minor. The country has
become well nigh empty save for a
lew millions Of Turks, VINO nave never
as q race displayed any genius for
organization. what Italy believes il
her ultimate destiny Is To replace the
Turks III Anatolia, to construct an
Italian colonial empire in Anatoha /;
ultimately to occupy that ruined
Smyrna which was promised her when
she entered the World War 70 I'LL the
empty regions which in the Byzantine
era maintained millions with the great
and growing surplus population of her
own peninsula.
That Is Italy's Goai
It Is for this gigantic adventure that
Italy is preparing. herself Il is TO
this end that her leaders j. not her
people, are consciously preparing. 1t
IS In the acceptance of this dream by
Britain and by France that i condi-
toned Italian Cooperation ami com
binatiOn with these powers il the
maintenance of peace and the status
auo in Europe. If Britain backs
Greece in the Aegean, If France backs
the Turk in Ana tolia, If both yield to
an eventual Russian resumption OF the
old advance to COnStantinople then
the Italian future becomes desperate
and italian policy cannot be fore
Swallowed.
Today France and Britain with rela-
lively the same population in Europe