The Arms Embargo Problem One direct issue arising out of
the existing tension between Italy and Abyssinia is dealt with in a Note addressed by the Abyssinian Government to Great Britain, France and Belgium, protesting against the Italian demand that European countries should refuse to supply Abyssinia with arms. The protest is fully justified. There is no reason whatever why the Abyssinian Government should not purchase arms in time of peace, and for Great Britain or any other manufacturing country to stop supplies to her at a moment when Italy is massing men and munitions on her borders with avowedly aggres- sive intent would be .a flagrantly unneutral act. To refuse arms both to Italy and to Abyssinia would be little bettei, for Italy has her own manufacturing resources and Abyssinia has none. The right way to use an arms embargo is to apply it to a disputant pronounced by the League of Nations to be in the wrong. That was done in the case of the Bolivia-Paraguay conflict, and though its effect in that particular case was apparently small, the principle was none the less right. The United States Senate, before which the question of American neutrality is about to be brought in a concrete form, would do well to recognize how inequitably the superficially equitable refusal of arms to both combatants indiscriminately may work out.
