ITALY AND OURSELVES
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sra,—Your correspondent, Mr. Jones, who takes me to task, belongs to that very vocal band of critics who are always ready to lay on their own country the blame for most of the ills that beset the world today.
No sensible person would wish to impede any movement towards establishiqg better relations with Italy. But it would be foolish to close our eyes to realities. Just as it takes two to make a quarrel, it takes two to end one And I cannot discern any effort in Italy to make their contribution. Indeed the reverse
in the case. - Mi. Jones seems to think that the fulminations of the Italian Press are merely a measure of retaliation for attacks in th: British Press. I certainly cannot agree that " abuse in the Italian Press can not only be paralleltd but outclassed in virulence by certain of our dailies."
The average British citizen feels no bitterness towards Italy, however much he may dislike Fascist methods of diplomacy. We have newspapers which are sympathetic to Italy. Are there any friendly papers in Italy ? I have yet to hear of any.
I might have referred to the very unfriendly tone of the Italian foreign broadcasts against which our Government more than once has had occasion to protest. The Italian authorities have recently announced that propaganda talks for the Middle and Near East are to be developed beyond anything yet attempted. Wireless talks, frankly propaganda, are to be given, too, in Hindustani. In these foreign talks Italy does not scruple to make allegations against this country such as the alleged bombing of women and children in the Aden Protectorate. Before the re-establishment of friendly relations becomes possible there must be a radical change in that attitude which, for example, allowel this notice to be extensively displayed in Italy and South Tyrol :
" Meglio vivere un giorno da haliani the cent' anni da Inglese."
An echo, I suppose, of Signor Mussolini's well-known motto : " Better to live a day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep." I quite agree with what Mr. Jones says about the importance of travel, and I deplore the fact that so few Italian tourists come to this country. I was told the other day by someone at the Paris Exhibition who was in a position to know, that practically no Italians visited the Exhibition up to the end of August and very few since then. This reluctance to travel (or inability to do so owing to diversion of all available funds to armaments ?) coupled with a regimented Press, puts a premium on ignorance and intolerance from which we as a nation are comparatively free.
I observe that Mr. Jones describes our efforts to fulfil our obligations under the Covenant as " ineffable folly." I suggest that he and those of a like kidney do an ill-service to their country and to the cause of world peace by striving to belittle this country's disinterested efforts as a leading member of the League of Nations.
We must hope that the day will come when it will be frankly recognised in Italy that our country had no honourable alterna- tive to its action in striving to uphold th: Covenant when the invasion of Abyssinia took place. Then, and not till then, will misunderstandings be removed and friendship re-established.—
Yours faithfully, T. S. PHILLIPS. Somerfield Court, Sellindge, near Ashford.
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