It is evident, of course, that Signor Vare expects us
to cast aside our wonted hypocrisy and to surrender the fortresses which guard our communications with our Empire. It is not quite clear whether Gibraltar, Malta, the Suez Canal and Aden come under the heading of "reasonable claims" or "legitimate aspirations," nor is any geographical definition given of where the "vital spaces" demanded by Italy are to be situated. Tripoli, Cyrenaica, Abyssinia and Albania are evidently not either spacious or vital enough ; but what else does Italy want? Will Egypt and the Sudan satisfy her? Or does she also require Tunis and Algeria? And where will be the inevitable parec- chio pia? It is not quite fair of Signor Vare to urge us to cease being hypocritical and not to tell us plainly what we have to cease being hypocritical about. I beg him to write a short letter to this journal giving a list, in their correct order, of the places that he wants. As an ex-diplomatist he will agree with me that imprecision is the most damaging of all diplomatic MOO.
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