Italy's Dilemmas The request of Italy that the Anglo-Italian Agreement
be brought into operation forthwith is intelligible. Signor Mussolini finds himself in many difficulties. The wheat shortage creates both financial problems and minor but not inconsiderable discontents at the inferior quality of Italian bread due to the necessity of eking out wheat with maize and other grain. To prosecute the Spanish campaign till a decisive Nationalist victory is achieved means more financial strain ; to withdraw Italian troops without a Nationalist victory means loss of prestige. But the terms of the Anglo-Italian agreement were explicit. It was to become effective—in other words Great Britain was to recognise Italian sovereignty over Abyssinia—coincidently with a settlement of the Spanish conflict and on no other terns. And whatever " settlement " may be held to mean, the one thing it cannot mean is the continuation of a state of things in which Italian regular troops are fighting against the Spanish Government and Italian aviators are dropping bombs, in some cases with deliberate intent, on British ships. It is no bad thing that Signor Mussolini should have given the British Cabinet the opportunity of pointing that out very firmly, which there is every reason to believe it has done. The Cabinet has shown itself complaisant at many points ; on this point not an inch can be yielded. Italy may yet realise that British friendship is worth more than intervention, combined with the membership of a non- intervention committee, in Spain.
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