ITALY AND ABYSSINIA
• [To the Editor of Tim SPECTATOR.] SIR,—By his memorable speech in Geneva in September, Sir Samuel Hoare won for himself a world-wide reputation for statesmanship, great prestige for his Government, and for his country the leadership in the comity of nations.
But on that fateful Sunday in Paris in December, by his unaccountable acquiescence in the preposterous proposals put forvirard as a basis for discussion, all the previous gainS tumbled into ruins--reputation, prestige and leadership alike : " 0, what a fall was there, my countrythen
• Mond, and you, and all of us fell down." •
It is just possible that a reasonable explanation may be forthcoming before the next issue of your journal. But much has been lost irretrievably. At present a sentence from "A Spectator's Notebook " best expresses the'general feeling throughout the country
" Such information as reaches me at the moment suggests that a heavy weight of responsibility lies on Sir Samuel Hoare, who went to Paris, completely and astonishingly capitulated to M. Laval and left to a Cabinet, startled and aghast at the news he sent, the choice of repudiating its Foreign Secretary and endorsing proposals utterly repugnant to it."
I should like to thank you, Sir, for the guidance given to your readers by the strong and unfaltering policy pursued by The Spectator from the outset of the disastrous and lawless Italian irruption in Abyssinia.—Yours faithfully, D. HENRY REES.
Granby, Brittany Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea.
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