22 OCTOBER 1937, Page 6

I do not invariably write with enthusiasm of the Daily

Express and its views, but this editorial paragraph from its issue of Wednesday seems worth quotation : " Mussolini has not paid for Abyssinia yet, orders a 10 per cent. capital levy—to meet the bill. That surprises those good people here who think that Italy is so strong, and also those who think that Mussolini is the heaven-sent defender of private property. It does not surprise those who know that the opposite is true. The Abyssinia annexation cost Italy not less than kt5o,000,000. The total trade of Abyssinia is worth about k2,000,000. If Italy collars the whole lot it can only yield her less than one quarter of the cost of the war debt charges. Is that good business ?

Terse, pertinent and pointed.

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