Evening star., 1941-04-12
Conquests Cost Italy Billions
For Deserts and Headaches
Every Military Venture Since
Ethiopia Dud, Whitaker Says

Oil to Italy for ref1n1ng and ship
ping abroad under italian labels.
The Spaniards preferred to refine
their own olive oil and sell it abroad
for gold, which they needed just as
badly as the Italians.
Spain gave Italy only 10000
quintals of olive oil in 1898 and
shut down as the war neared. Italy
has no trade future with Spain and
will never collect the whole of the
bill rendered for the Fascist inter-
vention that has yielded the Span
iards nothing but destruction and
poverty.
The conquest of Albania cost a
mere S5,000.000. There the Italians
hoped to develop petroleum produc-
ton. estimating in moments of
optimism that Albania might pro-
vide a quarter of Italy's annual
petroleum needs. But this was un-
economic production possible only
under a system of autarchy which
cares nothing for costs To the
initial outlay for conquest and the
LOob vi ChRlOlLdllOh IL
would have been necessary to add
the cost of two divisions of Italian
troops necessary to hold the popu-
lation from revolt.
What the invasion of the frontier
region of France cost 1 do not know.
Whatever the sum, there has been
no return on the investment. The
Italians hoped for much, got little
and failed to keep even that. French
Morocco produces annually roughly
Italys needs in iron ore. French
shares in the Suez Canal would have
enabled Mussolini, in theory, to
handle transportation between the
motherland and Ethiopia with no
further drain on Italy's gold.
The French port of Jibuti and
the railway leading up to Adds
Ababa would have been valuable
acquisition, too. For prestige there
were Corsica, Nice and Savoy What
did Mussolini get for stabbing the
French in the back? He got nothing
in Morocco. Hitler vetoed that. He
got nothing in Suez. The British
fleet took care of that. All that
Mussolini got of value was Jibuti
and the British are taking that
away from him.
Denied Even French Loot.
The jackars role for Stain in
Poland was all very well. but not
for Mussolini in France. Hitler has
not even let him loot French food
stuffs and material. There are
French trucks. guns, food stores and
the like in Sicily today, but they
are brought down by the Germans
for the use of the German forces OF
occupation in italy.
The cost of the conquest" OF
Greece does not arise because it is
still an invasion -in-reverse. 1t
should be charged, like the attack
against France, to the general out
lay for the militariZation of Italy
The cost of this general rearmament
program undertaken from the day
when the Fascists first took power
has been set by MusSolini at ILL.,
UUU,UuO,OOo IRE, VI uedIly oo,uoo,
100000. Such a figure is purely
arbitrary under the Fascist system
of bookkeeping and with the Fascist
tradition it has proved bad in
vestment. The italian nation is not
militarized.
Mussolini's adventures in fam
boyant nationalism have frequently
thrilled Italians. But in every in
stance the conquest has proved to
oe productive. The Italians now
know that they can afford neither
MuSsolini nor Fascism. The COM
bination has bankrupted the coun-
try for two generations.
tCopyright, 1941, By the Chicago
Daily News)