NEWS OF THE WEEK
TE League of Nations Council, which met on [IThursday as a result of the failure of the attempts of the Committee of Five, can hardly fail to proceed now iii accordanCe with Article XV of the Covenant to pass its own judgement on the Italo-Abyssinian dispute. If that judgement is unanimous any State which goes to War in contravention of it commits ipso facto an act of War against all League States. So does a State resorting to War within three months, whether the judgement is unanimous or not. It is clear, therefore, that if Signor Mussolini carries out his declared intentions he will automatically expose his country to the measures of restraint and repression provided for in Article XVI. That means that within a week or less the League may be faced with the gravest, decisions it has ever had to take. Thanks largely to British leadership and French co-opera- t"I (which is less hesitating than articles in the Paris press, subject as it is to diverse influences, would suggest) there is no reason to fear that the Council will flinch from its task. The plain facts are that Abyssinia can be defended, and Italy's aggressive intentions frustrated, by united and 'resolute action, with far less difficulty and risk than would be involved in the case of aggression by any other Great Power; and that the moral ease against Italy, after the acceptance by 'Abyssinia of the recom- mendations of the Committee of Five, which almost exceed reasonable limits in the satisfaction of every legitimate Italian demand, is overwhelming.
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