NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE reception given to Sir Samuel
Hoare's speech at Geneva makes it considerably clearer than before what Italy will have to face if Signor Mussolini carries through his plan of aggression at any cost. The attitude of our own country was never in doubt, but it has been declared with a firmness and deliberation beyond all general expectation. France, as these words are written, has still to announce her choice in the desperate dilemma that faces her. Russia, whose views could till last week only be surmised, has declared them through M. Litvinoff inas Sir Samuel Hoare's. language as uncompromising Spain has announced that she will stand by the Covenant. The Little Entente and the Balkan States, and of course the Scandinavians, demand resistance to aggression. The Foreign Ministers of Poland and Turkey are members of the League Council's committee of five, and Signor Mussolini's curt rebuffs to all their efforts should be enough to dissipate any hesitations they may have felt about joining the general opposition to Italian aggression. Europe, with the single but highly important exception of Germany, is to all appearance united in defence of the Covenant, and tremendous as the responsibility of taking the action that may become necessary must be; the con- viction that the choice is between the dominance of law and the dominance of naked force has become the decisive factor in the deliberations of every Cabinet.
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