The Oil Sanctions Problem If the moment is premature for
peace discussions, as it probably is, the question of imposing petrol sanctions becomes, or rather remains, immediately relevant. Arguments can be adduced for postponing that step. The existing sanctions, it may be said, are working well ; Italy's purchasing-power abroad has been destroyed, and even the wedding-ring collection will not enable her gold stocks to last long; oil sanctions, moreover, would exacerbate feeling and obliterate the prospect of peace just when it is taking shape; and in any case Italy has all the oil she wants for the present. Such contentions may be heard with respect, but they cannot convince. In the first place it is the plain duty of every League State to refuse to supply Italy with oil to drive her tanks and lorries and aeroplanes. Sanctions from which that step is excluded are not merely half-hearted but quarter- hearted. If Article XVI is to be put in force at all it must be put in force seriously, at any rate on its economic side. It is true that Congress has not yet adopted President Roosevelt's neutrality proposals, but League members are bound by their own pledges and have their own duty to perform, irrespective of what America may do. There is, moreover, the whole future to consider. Is it desirable that the potential aggressor of tomorrow shall be en- couraged to count on unimpeded access to petrol or de- privation of it ? Oil sanctions ought clearly to be imposed, and Great Britain ought to urge that. The tendency to abdicate a leadership which did us much credit and gained us deserved prestige is humiliating.
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