Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-03
RULE OF HISTORIC SEA
AGAIN WORLD PROBLEM
Control of Mediterranean Sea Challenges
Ingenuity OF Experts at Geneva
Naval Conference.

| ton in the Geneva conference with
out participation by France and Italy
| it was informally agreed in advance
that any plan of limitation arrived at
would provide for an automatic in
crease in light craft tonnage should
any outside power build above a GER
tain point. In other words, should
either Italy or France increase their
cruiser, destroyer or submarine
strength beyond a certain point. then
| England, Japan and the United States
! would automatically have the privi'
lege of increasing their ratio in the
same proportion.
No matter what the scale of limita.
ton arranged at Geneva, the posi-
bility of war in the Mediterranean will
not be decreased. War in the Pacific
was made next to impossible at the
Washington conference by eliminating
naval bases in that vast ocean, which
is too wide to permit the waging of
successful warfare without them. But
the Mediterranean is too small to ar
range any similar stalemate.'
Moreover. between France and Italy
exists dangerous rivalry for the
supremacy of the Mediterranean.
Italy with an annual excess of 461..
600 births over deaths, seeks an out.
let for this increasing population. Her
present African colonies can absorb
total of 100000 settlers during the
next 10 years, a migration which
would hardly dent the annual popula-
ton increase.
Muss0lini's Challenge.
Italy, therefore, seeks new colonies
She seeks them not only as an outlet
for her surplus population, but as a
source of food supply which will re-
lieve her of huge annual wheat i'm
ports from Argentina and the United
States. On his recent trip to Tripoli
Mussolini spoke pointedly of Italy's
future in Africa. Comrades" he
said, 'let us turn our thoughts to
that Italy of the past from which
sprang the strong Italy which is ever
spurred on toward the sure triumphs
of tomorrow. It is destiny thst has
urged us to this country. Nobody can
all nobody can break our infiexible
will. We are Mediterraneans, and
our destiny, without copying any one,
has been and always will be on the
sea-"
Wherever Italy seeks new territory
in the Mediterranean she comes
abruptly up against the fact that
France has already acquired most of
North Africa, and created spheres of
influence in many of the other border
ing Mediterranean states. In acquir-
ing protectoSate over Albania, Italy
has already SERIOUSLY disturbed the
serenity of one end of the Mediter-
ranean, while the several thousand
Italians which have settled in French
Tunisia have not contributed to
French peace of mind.
Prospects Under Scrutiny.
Italy also looks hungrily at Smyrna
with its hinterland and at the Turk
ish Province of Adalia, both of which
were promised her by Britain and
France under the London pact of
october 16, 1915, and the st. Jean de
Maurienne agreement of April, 1917.
Although Italy found herself baked
of these spells at the peace conference,
she has not forgotten them.
AS result, France is uneasy and
refuses to allow Italy to outbuild her
on the Mediterranean. AS long as
such rivalry exists, it will be G1fcult
for the Geneva conference to arrange
any real limitation of auxiliary naval
craft, even though Japan, Great
Britain and the United States are in
perfect harmony. These are some of
the factors which make it so much
harder for the Geneva naval confer
ence to reconcile age.old prejudices on
the comparatively small Mediterran-
can. than it was for the Washington
conference to make naval warfare
practically impossible on the vast
PacifiC