Evening star., 1937-10-12
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Ii Duce Bluffs 1t Out,

Great Britain and France are. GER
talnly gluttons for punishment at Italys
hands. On October London and Paris
presented Rome with a joint demahd
for three-power conference on with
drawal of Mussolini's $4,000 or $4,000
volunteers from Spain. Unless he
accedeo, he was given to understand
that France would let down the Pyrenees
frontier bars for unrestricted transit of
men and munitions to the Loyalists,
while Britain would relax her own ban
on shipment of sinews to the Valencia
government. Anglo-French patience
was reported exhausted. The western
powers were depicted as having at last
set their jaws for a showdown to end the
peril OF civil strife on the Iberian penin-
sula blazing into a general European
war.
Again the lion has roared and the
cock crowed to no purpose Mussolini
replies to the October "ultimatum"
with an almost curt rejection. Far from
evincing the slightest readiness to recall
Fascist divisions from Frances garrisons
and battle fronts, Italy insists that the
whole business be referred to the TWENTY
seven-power mon intervention" Commit
tee at London, and, moreover, that Nazi
Germany be asked to sit in on any vol
unteer" negotiations outside of that su-
pine and spineless body In other words.
Mussolini once more, just as he did
when he threatened to air-bomb the
British fleet to the bottom of the
Mediterranean, has bluffed the western
powers to standstill.
They still talk about Counter blows"
All signs indicate that these will pack
about the same punch as jabs and upper
cuts in shadow-boXing. Whatever the
cause-reluctance to light European fires
while the Far East flames. or sudden be-
lief that Anglo-French interests will not
be served by alternating Franco who may
finally emerge as master from the Pyre-
nees to Gibraltar-whicheve one of
these or other motives actuated them.
Chamberlain and Eden, Chautemps and
Delbos, seem ANONYMOUSLY, but unmis-
takably, to have hauled down the diplo-
matte colors they so bravely hoisted ten
days ago.
The full measure of Italy's apparent
taking of this jackpot in the European
poker game is visible in new plans to rub
Mussolini's fur in the right direction.
1t is now proposed to invite him to
discuss Anglo-Franco-Italian occupa-
tion of the Balearic Islands, in order to
safeguard their continued government
by Spain. The strategically placed
group, lying in the Mediterranean off
Barcelona and Valencia directly athwart
Frances lifeline to its North African
empire of Morocco, Algeria and Tunis,
would, in Italian hands, be dangerous
thorn in her colonial flank The four
of them-Palma, Majorca, Mallorca and
1v1za-are said already to swarm with
Fascist troops, airdromes and naval
bases. Almost exactly midway between
Marseilles, Toulon and the Glib the
islands would give their possessor almost
insuperable advantage in any struggle
for mastery Of the Mediterranean. Long
rated as the prize Mussolini expects as
a reward for sustaining frances cam
paign, it decidedly remains to be seen
whether, victory flushed from his most
recent bout with Downing Street and
the Quai dOrsay, II Duce is in mood to
swallow the bait now dangled from their
somewhat bent and battered hook. Mean
time, Europe's master buffer answers the
move to keep him out of the Balearics
by dispatching an additional division of
Italian troops to Libya, which menaces
Britain in Egypt and the Anglo Egyptian
Sudan and the entire French colonial
domain in Northeastern Africa.