Evening star., 1935-09-29
n Other States and Canada.
Member Of the Associated Press.
Italy's Land Hunger.

Italys case before the bar OF world
opinion has been almost irreparably i'm
paired by Mussolini's plans for the seizure
of Ethiopia. His Napoleonic posturing
and saber-rattling, his contemptuous
defiance of international peace machin-
cry, his preparations for crushing a
small, backward nation in a sheer war
of conquest, have prejudiced nearly all
peoples against him. Yet there are cer-
tain realities in the situation worthy OF
discussion, as the League prepares to
invoke punitive measures against Italy
If she insists upon becoming an aggressor.
It is generally recognized that 1taly's
need for expansion, to care for an annual
population increase of 100000, is genuine.
Sir Samuel Hoare recently made public
admission of that fact. The abortive
Anglo-French compromise efforts took
Italy's territorial necessities primarily
into consideration. 1t is conceded that
in the quest for domain suitable for
colonization Italy came into the market
late, to find desirable lands pre-empted
by other countries. immigration doors
are locked nearly everywhere. 1t is not
denied that Italy, even though history
possibly will say that she entered the
World War for what she could get out
of it, may have been shabbily treated
when the spoils of victory were dis
tributed in Africa. Nor is there much
doubt that under the Anglo
italian treaty of 1906. respecting
spheres of influence in Ethiopia, Italy
failed to garner the plums, territorial
and economic, which she expected.
Mussolini's current woes spring from
the circumstance that he has ventured
to obtain a square deal for Italy by
methods long since outlawed. 1t will
not do for him to plead in self-defense
that he is essaying no more than Great
Britain, France and other European
nations did in creating colonial empires.
There have even been suggestions in
Rome that America won her West by
some such procedure as the League
would restrain Italy from pursuing
against Ethiopia. The simple fact Is
that land grabbing is no longer interna-
tionally ethical, even on the japanese
model in Manchuria; nor is there virtue
in the contention that others are justi-
fed in emulating Japan just because
she escaped unscathed with the goods.
Despite all these things, it is worth
while to examine dispassionately Italy's
claims to wider place in the sun. What
Mussolini must remember is that he
will not promote a favorable considera-
ton of them by bluffng and bulldozing
tactics. Apart from any merits his
claims may possess, 1t is interesting to
speculate what might happen if after
a desperate gamble to conquer Ethiopia
the Roman dictator should be de-
throned. Would Communism supplant
Fascism, and would the Red tide stop
at the Tiber?
II Duce has pretty we'll forfeited the
right to expect the world to waste much
thought on the possibility that his Ethi-
opian adventure might end in personal
disaster, yet craftsmanship may conclude
that it lies in the worlds own interest
to explore to the limit the possibility
OF appeasing Italys land hunger-not
Mussolini's lust for CaeSarian glory-be-
fore it leads to consequences immeasur-
ably worse.