Atlanta Daily World

Italy Is Panicky As Result Ethiopian Situation, Report

LONDON--That Mussolini is becoming panicky over the delay of British recognition of Italy's "Ethiopian empire," resulting from Soviet denunciation of Italian piracy in the Mediterranean, is indicated by a secret note which, according to "The Evening Standard," a London newspaper, has just been sent by the Italian Fascist dictator to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain.

The gist of the note, as reported, is that Mussolini insists that the British Government adhere to its secret agreement with Rome to put through a measure in the present League of Nations proceedings at Geneva which would enable individual nations to recognize Ethiopia as Italian territory, even if the League, as a body, does not grant such recognition. To date, only Nazi Germany and Japan, among the Big Powers, have recognized the fascist rape of the East African country.

Soviet Monkey Wrench

The action of the Soviet Union in publicly pillorying Fascist Italy as the pirate nation whose submarines have been sinking merchantmen in the Mediterranean in aid of the Spanish rebels, threw a monkey wrench into the British scheme to aid the Fascist conquest of Ethiopia.

At the opening of the League of Nations Assembly meeting last week, the League rebuffed the two Fascist allies, Italy and Germany, by recognizing the Spanish Loyalist government and refusing the demands of the Fascist powers to bar Ethiopia from League membership. Japan, an ally of the two European powers, also came under League of Nations fire, when the Chinese Republic accused the Japanese Government of "ruthless slaughter and wanton destruction" in its undeclared war on China, and filed an appeal for the application of sanctions against Japan.

The League meeting received a note from Emperor Haile Selassie in which Italian claims that Ethiopian resistance had been crushed was sharply challenged. The Emperor pointed out that not only was the struggle continuing, but that recently the Italian invaders had been forced to withdraw from large sections of the Ethiopian interior.

Mussolini's note as reported by "The Evening Standard," a Lord Beaverbrook paper which is openly pro-fascist, declared that Italy can not collaborate with Britain in the Mediterranean and proceed with the so-called "gentlemen's agreement" of last January, until Britain has paved the way for general recognition of the Italian Ethiopian empire. After declaring that no obstacle exists in the European situation to British-Italian cooperation the note continues:

"The situation, however, is different when the question is approached of relations between the Italian Empire and the British possessions in Africa. With the exception of a short frontier with French territory, Italian Ethiopia, for more than 2,000 miles, borders on territories owned or controlled by Great Britain--the Sudan, Kenya Colony and British Somaliland. A discussion of the inevitably necessary settlement of the problem of neighborly relations presupposes recognition by Great Britain of Italian sovereignty over Ethiopia. That means the release of members of the League of Nations from their obligations collectively to resist recognition of the Italian conquest. In other words, at the present meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations, the Italian Empire awaits from Great Britain a clear indication of its intentions."