• The Italian Colonies
The discussions between representatives of the four Foreign Ministers on the future of the Italian colonies in Paris this week did no more—and were generally expected to do no more—than demonstrate once more the determination of Russia to prevent agreement between the Four Powers on anything anywhere at any time. Discussions on M. Vyshinsky's declaration that the meeting, since it did not consist of Foreign Ministers, had no statutory validity occupied tediously the greater part of the first day's sittings. That having been disposed of, or skated round, the prospect of agreement on one point, Somaliland, which all four Powers wanted put under Italian trusteeship, shaped itself for one fleeting moment, but M. Vyshinsky soon found grounds for dis- sociating himself from a proposal which Russia has hitherto sup- ported. His contention was that the fate of one colony should not be settled till the fate of all could be decided, and in regard to Libya, which comprises Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and the Fezzan, and Eritrea no agreement exists. Britain is under special obligations to the Senussi in Cyrenaica, and the United States approves of a Senussi emirate, under United Kingdom trusteeship, there ; France. and Russia desire solutions differing from this, and differing from one another. The question goes now to the United Nations, and since the organ concerned is the Assembly, where Russia has not a veto, not the Security Council where she has, it is conceivable that a solution may yet be reached. But to say that puts a low estimate on Russia's capacity for frustration. In the Assembly a two-thirds majority is necessary. It is to be hoped that during the debates there some word may be spoken on behalf of the native populations of the colonies and their desires.
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