The report of the League Council's Committee contains a far-reaching scheme for the internal reorganisation of Abyssinia relating particularly to the prevention of slave traffic, plunder and smuggling, the modernisation of Government services and industry, with plans for large scale public works, State budget control of expenditure, and the systematic collection of taxes.
It is suggested that a commission should report annually to the League on the working of the scheme, with a comprehensive review at the end of five years. Mussolini has not yet considered the official report, but, commenting on early newspaper versions of it, he indicated that it was not acceptable to Italy.
The text of the proposals contained in the report of the League Council's committee of five for the peaceful settlement of the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia are published by the "Daily Telegraph."
The report contains tho following clauses, comprising a far-reaching scheme for the internal reorganisation of Abyssinia: —
The report suggests that the League Council should assume the task of development with the assistance of foreign specialists working in co-operation with the Emperor's Government. A commission of advisers should report to the League once a year, the whole position to be reviewed at the end of five years.
Great Britain and France have undertaken to facilitate territorial adjustment between Italy and Abyssinia by sacrificing country to the Emperor in the region of the Somali coast. They are also ready to recognise Italy's special interest in Abyssinia's economic development.
It is felt that in co-operating in these collective measures, Italy would be able to achieve practically, and without the immense cost of a military campaign, her legitimate economic aims. It is stated that the British delegation is satisfied that there is nothing in the proposals inconsistent with Abyssinia's position in the League or the principles of the covenant. The report has been communicated to the Abyssinian and Italian delegations, and the leader of the Italian delegation (Baron Aloisi) is reported to be going to Rome to place the report before Signor Mussolini and his Ministers.
Great Britain is opposed to unnecessary delay, the "Times" correspondent in Geneva says, but she Is In favor of giving the Italians ample time to consider this last chance of reaching a peaceful and advantageous settlement. It will not be surprising if Italy eventually rejects the proposals, but she may accept them for the present as the basis of discussion, hoping during the period of negotiation to find some joint in the armor of those now standing so firmly against their policy.
The Rome correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says that yesterday's newspaper versions of the report said the committee's proposals were not acceptable to him. He was not then in possession of the report, but he said that if the press versions were correct its proposals were ironical. The suggestion apparently was that Italy's need for expansion should be met by the cession of two deserts, one salt and the other stone— Danakil and Ogaden.
"One of Mark Twain's characters was so fond of echoes," Mussolini said with a laugh, "that he bought two mountain's possessing fine echoes and built a house between them. Apparently the committee thinks I am a collector of 'deserts'."
"I recently got 111,000 square miles of the Sahara Desert from the French, containing sixty-two inhabitants," Mussolini continued. "Danakil is the bed or a dried-up sea, 800 feet below sea level. It is a waste of white salt 200 miles long, and practically uncrossable — even Abyssinlans cannot live there. Ogaden is a desert of stone. One can do something with a sand desert, as the Italians showed by irrigating Libya, but nothing can be done with a wilderness of parched rocks.
"Apparently Italy is not represented in the international administration or the gendarmerie scheme. It is apparently suggested that the Italian troops in Africa should be brought home and told it was an excursion trip. That will not be done. The committee should have recognised the central fact of the situation — that there is no Abyssinian nation. Tho dominant race, the Amharas, rule the tribes, and they have been reduced to slavery and almost exterminated in the process. The tribes would be far better off under Italian rule. While it is true that Abyssinia could be civilised by a regime similar to that in Irak or Morocco."
Mussolini calmly discussed tho strained feeling between Great Britain and Italy without a sign of the megalomania with which he is sometimes reproached in England.
It is reported from Geneva that Baron Aloisi is not going to Rome, Mussolini having said that he "does not want advice from Geneva." This is taken to indicate that he adheres to his determination to proceed with the campaign.
The city editor of the "Daily Telegraph" raises doubts whether Italy can afford to fight. In a striking article, he implies that Italy is making a desperate gamble and that her efforts to raise credits in London, Paris and New York have failed.
Banking circles believe that the reconversion of 3 1/2 per cent, war and short-term loans alone would bring the Italian Exchequer £15,000,000.
Meanwhile, the nervousness of the Italian delegates at Geneva has Increased, and there is good reason to believe that the rally of world opinion to the League, especially Great Britain's quiet but steady preparations for any eventuality in the Mediterranean, has markedly affected Italian morale. It was fashionable in Geneva until recently to cast doubt on Great Britain's resolution and the efficacy of the material means at her disposal. Some even accepted the theory that the Italian navy and air force were "newer," and therefore more formidable, than any they might meet in Mediterranean waters, but the concentration of British naval force in the Mediterranean has now reached proportions which have visibly impressed Italian as well as other observers. The sudden appearance of twenty-four British destroyers in Egyptian waters when the Italian Government was not aware that they had passed Gibraltar is being related with relish as a reply to the Italian claim that nothing has happened in the Mediterranean without Italy's knowledge.
A message from Cairo states that twelve Italian submarines traversed the Suez Canal southwards, watched by British destroyer patrols.
The solution propounded is not essentially more generous than the Paris proposals. Well-informed statesman regard the chances against Mussolini's acceptance of it as 10 to 1 against, but they consider he will not give a defiant negative without consideration. It is significant, doubtless, in view of the proposals emanating from a committee under League auspices instead of those of Great Britain and France alone, that Baron Aloisi is going to Rome to personally explain the issues arid expedite Italy's answers.
Meanwhile, the British attitude is hardening. It is authoritatively stated that Great Britain will never agree to Italy dominating, or even preponderantly sharing, economic and military control of Ethiopia, The delegates of some of the smaller powers are trying to keep the Assembly sitting until a decisive phase has been reached. The British delegates are not opposing, this, but the Council in any case will remain in session.
At the moment when, presumably, Geneva has said the last word about the dispute France paradoxically stands at once completely, united in support of the League, and deeply divided as to what this means (the "Times" Paris correspondent says). The cry still is, "We cannot abandon the League - we will not make an enemy of Italy." When the utter impossibility of reconciling the two ideas seems to become clearer than ever the big question is how far M. Laval is prepared to go, if the necessity arises, along the path of collective action. Some fear he will go too far. Others are beginning to wonder if he will go far enough. The idea of military sanctions is at present just as repugnant to supporters of the League as it is to supporters of Franco-Italian friendship at any price. Nevertheless, the belief that M. Laval has already given Mussolini a pledge that France will not participate in military operations has shocked Paris. Even assuming that he has given such a pledge so strangely at variance with his recent reaffirmation of loyalty to the League's authority, he has so far only committed himself, because M. Laval is not a dictator, and there still remains the judgment of his colleagues and the country. What that might be nobody can tell, and at the moment the question does not arise, but what does arise, if rumor be true, is the effect which the revelation - will have on the large mass of French opinion behind the League if it turned out that M. Laval, while affecting to stand by the League, had given a promise that would hamper possible League action. There is little doubt that his position would then become impossible.
(Further information on the Hoare-Laval Pact - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoare%E2%80%93Laval_Pact)
Dr. Sidney Berry, Moderator of the Evangelical Free Churches Council, said the Free Churches unreservedly supported the British declarations at Geneva. It would seem that the world had gone stark mad with rampant nationalism and warlike gestures threatening to engulf mankind.
Dr. Norwood, president of the Free Church Council, declares that the turning point of history was approaching and it would be memorable throughout the world — perhaps throughout the ages, it would demonstrate whether the old, bad order was to be brought to a noble climax, or whether through man's failure we must again enter the valley of the shadow and learn the inevitable lesson.
The National Liberal Federation unanimously welcomed the British statement, pledged wholehearted Liberal support to it, and urged that, in order to remove recent challenges to the League system, there should be a reduction of barriers against international trade and freedom of immigration to underpeopled countries and that Colonial resources now controlled by a few countries should be made available to the world.
The correspondent of the Paris "Temps" at Asmara states that Italian troops strongly occupy the whole of the zone between Asmara and the frontier, occupying forts named after officers who fell at Adowa. Native irregulars under Italian officers, reconnoitre in bands, while opposite them Abyssinian troops are feverishly throwing up defences and levelling aerodromes at Adowa and Askum. Floods in the Mareb River render the passage of lorries impossible.
It Is stated from Rome that Italian insistence on reinforcing the Libya garrison, despite assertions that it is not justified by the attitude of the Senussi, may be explained by the fact that General Balbo's troops extend for the whole length of the Egyptian border, which it would be easy to move toward the Suez Canal should the sanctions threaten the closure of the canal.
The Governments of British and French Somalind are erecting frontier block houses in order to impound from the possible battle fields.
Abyssinians declare that malaria Is ravaging the Italian troops in Eritrea.
Sir Percival Philips, the "Daily Telegraph" correspondent at Addis Ababa, declares that it is impossible for Abyssinia to starve. Systematic organisation of supplies is ensuring food for the entire population. Huge supplies of grain have been stored in subterranean depots. The Abyssinian soldier can fight for twenty-four hours on a single handful of grain, roasted on a sheet of iron.
No blockade can affect Abyssinia's food supplies, and native weavers can supply all the clothes needed.
Fifty Abyssinian boys, aged from four to eight, grandsons of Adowa veterans, marched through the streets of Addis Ababa carrying little wooden rifles and wearing cartridge belts. All marched proudly erect, keeping step with the music of a military band. Their mothers and little sisters walked parallel with them on the sidewalks, while a rattle or clapping came from the windows from which their grandfathers looked out on the scene. The fathers of these boys have already gone to the front. "But," they said, "we shall protect our mothers and sisters until we are old enough to fight."
Fifteen hundred women visited the Empress and offered to feed 7500 soldiers for several months. Similar offers have been made by the women in the provinces.
Dr. Malan, leader of the Opposition, declared to-day that pending the reform of the League South Africa must be neutral. If the government decided otherwise the Nationalists would "fight them tooth and nail," but if the League decided to apply other than military sanctions South Africa must do her duty to the League.
A special Ethiopian envoy, Sidjil Abba Biru, was warmly welcomed at Osaka today. A Foreign Office spokesman indicated that Japan would follow a policy of watchful waiting, but he declined to say whether she would be neutral in the event of hostilities occurring.
At the meeting of the political committee of the League Assembly in Geneva yesterday (the "Times" correspondent says), M. Lange, the Norwegian delegate, drew attention to the tendency of certain mandatory powers to efface the line of demarcation between mandates and possessions.
M. Lange declared that if that tendency were accentuated it would constitute a real danger in the mandate system. Energetic action was necessary because it had been said that mandates simply camouflaged colonies. He mentioned the harbor and other constructions carried out by the Japanese on the mandated islands in the Pacific. The Japanese delegate to the mandates commission had said the work carried out on the islands was not a disguised form of fortifications designed for the use of the Japanese fleet, but was intended for civil and commercial purposes, but these explanations were unconvincing as the sums involved were greater than would have been necessary If the works were for civil purposes.
Replying to the discussion at Geneva yesterday on the mandates system, the spokesman of the Foreign Office declared that suspicions of the harbor improvements effected by the Japanese were baseless. Their purposes were purely economic and civil, as had been repeatedly explained. The previous harbor facilities in the islands were not sufficient for actual commercial needs - large ships had not been, able to enter the harbors and improvements had been necessary to accommodate the growing needs and assist the economic development of the islands.
Addressing the Economic Committee to-day, Mr. Bruce amplified the speech he made in the Assembly on 11th inst. in explanation of the Australian suggestion for the appointment of a commission to investigate diet and nutrition in relation to world agriculture.
Mr. Bruce proposed —
"That the Assembly, having considered nutrition in relation to health and the effect of the increased consumption of foods upon national and world economic problems, believes that a great improvement of health can be thus achieved and that simultaneously agricultural difficulties would be decreased, and urges the Governments to examine practical means of securing increased consumption of food. The Assembly requests the Council — first, to extend the work of its health organisation to the subject of nutrition in its relation to health; secondly, to instruct its technical organisations to collect information regarding measures in various countries for improved nutrition through the increased consumption of food; and, thirdly, to appoint a committee of agricultural, economic and health experts to examine the results and report to the Assembly in 1936 on the agricultural and economic effects."
Continuing, Mr. Bruce said a social upheaval was inevitable unless the people were given the benefits of science. It had been clearly shown that by the increased consumption of certain foodstuffs rickets, pellagra and beriberi could be eliminated, tuberculosis reduced, the health of mothers and children greatly improved and infantile mortality substantially decreased. He quoted South Australia's decision to provide the families of unemployed with a pint and a half of milk daily per child. Some countries in Europe had adopted methods for the defence of agriculture that had resulted In such high wholesale prices that there had been a detrimental effect on the consumption of food, and therefore on health. When in December, 1933, the price of butter in London was 70/ a cwt., the prices in three European countries were 190/, 210/ and 216/ respectively. Personally he would rejoice from the standpoint of Australia's enlightened self-interest to see growing public and Government interest in the increased consumption of food.
Lord Ponsonby has announced his intention to resign from the leadership of the Labor party In the House of Lords owing to the Labor party's decision to support the application of sanctions by the League.
In a letter to Mr. Lansbury, Lord Ponsonby explains that for thirty years he has held the view that peace cannot be secured by force of arms, and that he sees no reason to deviate from that conviction by a hair's breadth now. He added that he seriously differs with the Labor party on all important points of its foreign policy.
Sir Stafford Cripps has also resigned from the national executive of the Labor party, disapproving of the executive's support of the Government's foreign policy.
Battle cruisers Renown and Hood and the cruisers Orion, Neptune and Achilles three of the four Shlps of the second cruiser squadron and six of the nine destroyers of the sixth destroyer Flotilla, and the cruiser Ajax, have arrived at Gibraltar. — Official Wireless.
The British war ships Hermes, Berwick, Cornwall, Duchess and Dainty arrived at Singapore to-day.