Evening star., 1935-11-03
ETHIOPIAN TOWNS PAWNS
NPOWERS' BARGAINING
League Would Be Compromising Felony
in Authorizing Despoliation of
Country i'm Trade for Peace.

and throw II Duce out, but barring
these two possibilities. he is going to
annex Ethiopian lands-and amaSs
battlefield laurels which will serve him
in good stead at home.
ii Duce May Fight Yet.
He is going to do both of these
things because there is no way save
by fighting that he can be stopped.
He would have fought the British II
they had resorted to a blockade.
They didn't believe this when they
sent the home fleet to the Mediter-
ranean, but they know it today. 1t
is my own belief that even now II
Duce will fight if, as result OF eco
nomic sanctions, he is ultimately
landed in a corner. He's got his back
to the wall in so far as his place in
power and his position in history are
concerned He knows what happened
to the Kaiser because he wouldn't go
out fighting and he recognizes the
difference between the exile of Doom
and the prisoner of st. Helena.
But I don't believe the economic
sanctions can be made to work with
sufficient effectiveness to stop Mus
solini or to drive him to some stroke
OF desperation On the contrary,
when the British election is over, if
the Tories win I believe that some
sort of a deal will be patched up by
which II Duce will get a slice of
Ethiopia for his own and guarantee
of economic control in another por-
ton, and Ethiopia and Geneva will
pay the costs of the settlement.
That's the way these disputes in
variably END when no one is willing to
go to war to halt a campaign of
colonial conquest waged by strong
and determined nation. There was
an enormous amount of haggling
over Morocco. but France got it in
the end. The world was shocked over
the British destruction of the two
South African republics, but that
was ALL
MussOlini Scared Badly.
When nations go to war they can
only be stopped by war. Japan proved
that once and Italy is now proving it
again. I think the British scared
Mussolini pretty badly for a few
days during which he was frankly
afraid they meant to blockade him.
But when he said that in such case
he would fight back, he was not
bluffing nor had he gone insane. On
the contrary he was simply standing
with his back to the wall and telling
a truth the tragic implications of
which he fully realized To learn
from Sir Samuel Hoare's lips that
this fate was not in store for him was
undoubtedly relief beyond exaggera-
ton
Yet II Duce's problem remains evi-
dent. He must have a successful war
and sufficient booty, and both must
be acquired at the cost Of Ethiopia
directly and of Geneva indirectly.
On the other hand. when Halle
Selassie was asked what he consid-
cred would be just peace, he said with
a truthfulness that cannot be gain
said, "A just peace must be one
which leaves our sovereignty. terri
torial integrity and independence in
tact" Patiently the League cannot
consent to any terms which do not
insure these three things to a coun-
try whose case it has adopted without
becoming party to a shameful bar
gain. At least. in the Manchurian
affair, if it could not halt Japan it
did not approve the despoiling of
China. If now it gives its assent or
fails to fight to the death any such
adjustment as M. Laval has been
pressing it's honor will have gone
along with the prestige which was
lost in the Asiatic episode
The thing to do is to watch the
map-that's the score board. Geneva
is passing resolutions but Italy is
winning battles and seizing provinces.
If the economic sanctions are to sue
ceed they must put II Duce back
where he started from and assure the
eighty, undiminished territory, unre-
stricted independence. Everything
else is. as "Al" Smith would put it,
'just SO much baloney." And that,
with military sanctions out of the
picture, is as near to impossibility as
one can imagine. But it's the only
result which will enable Geneva to
lay claim to victory in the present
League war" now to be waged ex-
clusively by peaceful means.
(Copyright 1880