War Talk and Peace Certain passages in Signor Mussolini's speech
at Milan on Saturday have gained in significance through the tragic events that have since taken place at Marseilles. At last, and not a moment too soon, the Italian Prime Minister has dealt openly and in moderate language with the question of Italo-Jugoslav relations. He referred, it is true, only to Press polemics on the Jugoslav side, though the Italian papers are every whit as much to blame as those across the Adriatic, but he held out the hopeful prospect that Italy might offer "the possibility of an understanding for which precise conditions already exist." That at least is of the nature of an olive-branch, and references to relations with France and to Italy's rejection of any idea of declaring a kind of protectorate over Austria were conceived in the same temper. The speech, of course, contained the usual flamboyant passages and held up again the ideal of Italy as a nation of soldiers. Fortunately, for all Signor Mussolini's habit of harping on war, there are plenty of signs that he realizes the necessity of peace for Italy.
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