Evening star., 1939-10-02
Relations Of Italy
And Reich Face New
Political Forces
Soviet Hos Expanded
Since Agreement
Between Nations
By PERTINAX,

BY PERTINAX.
PARIS, Oct 2 (N.ANA0.-
Whether Chancellor Hitler and For
eign Minister Won Ribbentrop have
succeeded in persuading italian For
eign Minister Ciano to support them
actively in the so-called peace offer
to be made shortly to France and
England and to strengthen the Ger
manhattan solidarity remains an
open question here.
On the one hand, Premier Mus
solini, in his Bologna speech of Sep
tember %. pronounced himself in
favor of the early conclusion of a
peace to be based upon accomplished
facts, and he clearly showed that to
give free play to the dynamism of
the growing nations was his main
care. On the other hand, it is a
fact that Count Ciano, when he
returned from Salzburg in the second
week of August, had rather revised
his views about the steel pact" and
that Italy is being confronted today
by new situation which could not
be foreSeen last spring and last
summer.
Fundamental Changes Occur.
do not pretend to guess what the
Fascist rulers have now in mind,
but, in order to steer their course,
they must necessarily take into seri-
Gus consideration the fundamental
changes which have occurred during
the last few weeks:
First, the territorial expansion of
Soviet Russia and the resurrection
of the Russian imperialism of old.
Second, the practical subordina-
tion of Hitler to Joseph Stain in
the East and in the Southeast of
Europe, a subordination likely to
endure as long as the RiechsWehr
will be absorbed by the western
front.
Third, the awakening of the feel
ing of Slav brotherhood among the
peasant nations of the Balkans.
Fourth, the explosive influence of
the agrarian reform of the Com
munists, already carried out in
eastern Galicia, whereby the social
structure of Central Europe may be
altered
Pacts Seen in New Light.
The various agreements reached
IN the past by Germany with her
associates, including Italy, are now
seen to apply to an entirely new
world, with very different effects
from those the signatories had ex-
pected Those associates of Ger
many cannot relish the prospects of
the Stalinian empire making its in
fluence felt upon the enforcement
of those agreements through the in
strument of a Germany reduced to
impotence.
The arrangements Germany and
italy may have framed in past years
or past months about their respec-
tive fields of expansion in Eastern
Europe and the Eastern Mediter-
ranean have never been known. But
1t is obvious that, owing to the inter-
position of Soviet Russia, they are
fast losing all validity.
Only a very bold observer could
draw from the above definite infer |
ences about the line of policy Fascist
Italy will deem opportune to follow.
But that Mussolini and his ministers |
and advisers have had and will have
to reckon with this set of problems |
to which attention has been called
is as clear as daylight. 1t will rest
with Mussolini and with Mussolini
alone to cast the dice.
Speculation on Turkey.
OF nearly as great an Importance
as Count Ciano's journey to Berlin
are the conversations still in progress
between Vyacheslaf Molotoff, the
president of the cOmmisSariats of
the people, and Sukru Saracoglu, the |
minister of foreign affairs of Turkey. |
All available signs point to the re-
solve of the Turkish government to
stick to the commitments toward
France and Great Britain that were |
entered into last June and to bring |
them anyhow to completion.
While in Moscow, Saracoglu's pur-
pose is to reconcile his country's pol
icy for the upholding and defense Of
the existing order of things in the
Balkans, in the Black Sea and in the
Eastern Mediterranean with the
very close relations that he and his
predecessors have maintained with
Soviet Russia for the last Is years.
But has not Russian imperialism
been revised to such an extent that
Turkey must part with Moscow,
since she is not ready to sacrifice
her new formulas of action? 1t is
far-reaching question.
Were Molotoff to come to an un-
derstanding with Saracoglu, it would
appear that Russia can still be kept
in some kind of restricted peace
front, that the German-Russlan
bond is of rather loose nature, and
that Rsusia is not bent upon carry
ing out schemes of conquest of her
own in the southeast of Europe. In
the opposite case, Turkey may have
to revert to her traditional attitude
Of all-around opposition to Russia.