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Yesterday

Italian Ethiopia

Those who saw in the recent settlement of the Hungarian-Jugo-Slavian affair the beginning of a new era in international politics should be interested by an item in yesterday's newspapers dealing with the equally fascinating, although less important, quarrel between Italy and Abyssinia. These reports announced that, in a statement apparently signed by Premier Mussolini himself, the Italian government had refused arbitration, maintaining that the case was one of pure aggression on the part of the Ethiopians. This statement has a certain whimsical humor, suggesting an image of the Roman eagle fighting for its life against the black gnats of Africa. Nevertheless, it is certain to be accepted--after a polite minimum of debate--by the League. Italy, like Japan, acts with independence.

There has been no lack of pretexts in the past for encroachment by Italian colonists in Somaliland upon the rich cotton lands between them and their confreres in Libya. Always, however, they have been restrained by the protests of Great Britain and France. Now, however, the English objections have been withdrawn, probably because Italian expansion is considered less dangerous than French. It is also apparent that the Quai d'Orsay now feels that Abyssinia is of less importance than central Europe. When M. Laval calls upon Signor Mussolini this week, he will probably express his gratitude for support against German pretensions by allowing the Roman government complete freedom in Africa.

Thus it is evident that the old diplomacy is not dead. Open covenants, openly arrived at, may at any time be supplemented by gentlemen's agreements, of no legal value but of tremendous actual importance. The annexation of Libya by Italy in 1911 was the result of just such an agreement, and it may well be that Abyssinia in 1934 will be similarly Europeanized.

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