Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-22
AFRICAN CRISIS BLAMED
ONENCLAND AND FRANCE
Failure to Share Spells of War With
Italy Is at Base of Rome's Deter
minatiOn to Win Empire.
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

IA4C SOu1lSll VI Vic League
~ was struggling desperately
and despairingly, with the
Ethiopian question there was spread
abroad in Geneva the news that the
Germans were planning to explode
another bombshell at the moment OF
leaving delmitively Actually sep
arated from the League since their
withdrawal almost two years ago, the
Germans cannot legally get out until
next month when their notice becomes
effective. Before they go they plan
to tell the League and the world that
until their colonies are returned CO.
operation with other nations will be
impossible.
In simple terms, just as MusSohnl
has served notice that he must have
Ethiopia as a source of raw materials
and an outlet for surplus population,
so Hitler means to tell the other powers
that the price of peace with Germany
is the recognition of her similar needs.
In sense the German case is stronger
than the Italian, because what Hitler
now demands was taken from Ger
many by the treaty of Versailles. BY
contrast. Mussolini's grievance arises
from the fact that the British and
the French took for themselves prac-
tically all of the colonial booty of
the war and shared none of it with
their Italian ally.
At the root of the present African
affair lies this stupid refusal of the
British and the French at the Peace
Conference to recognize that in TAX
ing German colonies and denying
Italy's claims for share in them
they we're simply laying up trouble
for themselves. AS far as Italy is con-
cerned that trouble has already ar
rived and has set Europe and the rest
of the world by the ears. Now Ger
many makes it clear that she pro-
poses to raise the same issue in
slightly different form and in future
not very distant. Her determination
will, too, precipitate crisis quite as
acute as the present affair.
Combination Feared by French.
French and British apprehension
was still further excited by the warm
reception of the new Italian AmbaS-
sador to Germany by Hitler. Always
in the back of the French mind is the
nightmare of an Italian-German COM
bination. And. insofar as the material
circumstances of the two countries
are concerned, both have an identical
reason for demanding a new deal in
colonial assets. For both have over
crowded homelands, are confronted by
the plague of population pressure and
by their poverty in raw materials and
minerals essential to industry.
Were Italy and Germany to make a
common cause then it is hard to see
how any counter balancing combina-
ton of forces could be established in
Europe. Such a combination would
be not merely possible but extremely
probable were it not for two things.
In the first place, Hitler and MuSsolini
are squarely at odds over Austria. And,
secondly, there is natural rivalry and
jealousy between two dictators, each
of whom naturally and inevitably
seeks to dominate any combination in
which both are associated
With the putsch in Vienna last year
the break between. Hitler and Mus
solini became complete. Hitherto II
Duce had sought again and again to
come to terms with Berlin both before
and after the Nazi revolution. But
driven to turn to Paris he presently
came to terms with Laval instead.
Many outstanding and troublesome
disputes between the two Latin coun-
tries were nquidated at Rome and at
StreSa-following Germany's repudia-
ton of the armament sections of the
treaty of Versailles-and a common
Franco-Italian front against German
action in Austria was established.
Last Spring, however Garma. d.
plomacy cleverly retaliated on France
by persuading the British to make a
separate naval agreement which in
effect, gave British blessing to Ger
man rearmament. Meantime the
French had in their turn agreed not
to oppose the plans of II Duce for
expansion in Ethiopia. Thus, while
the British were indignant over the
French betrayal of the League, the
French resented equally Britain'S de-
sertion of the Stresa front. Both al
legged legal as well as moral offenses
on the part of the other. But in
reality each was playing the same
old game.
Colonial Interests Menaced.
Left alone to oppose Mussolini's
Ethiopian adventure, the British
moved heaven and earth to persuade
or coerce the French into following
their lead. They want to keep the
Italians out of Ethiopia because it
threatens their own colonial interests.
The French want to keep the League
alive as a rallying point in their re-
sistance to German plans in Europe.
So London warned Paris that if
France did not support the League
. prevent aggression in Africa it
-EIa hardly be of much use in Eu-
rope. Aware Of certain anxiety in
French quarters as a result of this
British argument, MuSSolini arranges
the little comedy of friendliness in
Berlin. And France gropeS frantically
for both life IneS-supporting the
League against Italy on the one hand
and on the other asking MuSSolini
to guarantee Austria's independence
before he opens his African campaign.
Nevertheless, behind all these va
rious intricate moves and counter
moves of European diplomacy there
does lie the serious and unchanging
fact that Germany means to have
her colonies back or their equivalent.
And what this amounts to is that her
conquerors, Great Britain and France,
must either consent to the return of
the territories taken or prepare for
a struggle with the Reich Precisely
as Mussolini has recently given Brit
ain the choice between fighting and
asserting to his colonial enterprise,
Hitler is bound one day. to demand
restitution as the price of continued
peace. And the demand will be adj
dressed chiefly to Britain because the
lions share of German real estate fell
IN ENGLAND