FACTS ABOUT STRESA
Stn,—Lord Perth's letter in your issue of May 28th reminds me of a report which was current after the Conference at Stresa to the effect that Mussolini, in bringing the proceedings to a close, had concluded his speech with an assertion that the Conference was " agreed on the necessity of maintaining peace in Europe," and that, having paused, Mussolini slowly repeated " peace in Europe," with marked emphasis upon the last word. The suggestion was, of course, that Mussolini considered thereafter that he had given his hearers fair notice of his intentions in respect of Africa, and that, no objection having been raised, be was free to proceed. It would be interesting to know whether anyone who was present recalls the words attributed to Mussolini.
Subsequent events, as we know, broke the Stresa Front, and drove Italy into alliance with Germany. In that sense, Italy's invasion of Abyssinia must be regarded as having led to the present war, though, as Lord Perth says, it is arguable that a breach with Germany was, in the long run, inevitable. But, to trace events a few years back, the true cause causans of our present troubles was the admission of Abyssinia to the League of Nations. In the light of subsequent events, we may conclude that, had Abyssinia not been a member of the League, neither the French nor the British Government would have moved in her defence. However wanton and outrageous had been Italy's aggression in Abyssinia, it would have been regarded merely as a " colonial war," or even as a " punitive expedition," and would have passed almost unnoticed. The Governments of France and Britain would have had no reason to inter- vene, unless they had chosen to take the view that their jnterests were involved. How and why Abyssinia came to be a member of the League is another story, now only of interest in that it exemplifies the strange haps of fate which go to shape the history of the world's storm-troubled
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